Evaluation of the age-related changes of mandible cortical porosity by cone beam computerized tomography

Evaluation of the Age-Related Changes of Mandible Cortical Porosity by Cone Beam Computerized Tomography The aim of this study was to investigate whether mandibular cortical porosity changes with age using cone beam computed tomography images. In the study, cone beam computed tomography data of 120 male patients divided into 3 different age groups as young, middle-aged and elderly were used. In angled coronal images: distal to the mental foramen, between second premolar teeth and first molar teeth, distal to second molar teeth in patients with teeth; distal to the mental foramen, 10 millimeter and 22 millimeter after this section in patients without teeth. Trabecular area and total area measurements were made by using the Cavalieri principle, a stereological method, with the planimetry method. SPSS for Windows 17.0 (Illinois, London) program was used for statistical analyses. The conformity of the data to normal distribution was analysed by Kolmogorov Smirnov test. Descriptive statistics were given as median, minimum-maximum values as well as mean and standard deviation values. Interobserver and intraobserver agreement coefficients were calculated as class correlation coefficients. Statistical differences between age groups were analysed by Kruskal Wallis, Mann Whitney U test and Bonferroni correction. Correlation analysis was performed by Spearman correlation test. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. The results showed that there was a significant difference in trabecular mean and whole-area mean between the young and elderly group and there was no significant difference in trabecular mean and whole-area mean between middle-aged and elderly group. Also, there was no significant difference in the ratios in all groups. According to these results, there is no correlation between age and cortical porosity.