Investigation of articular eminence inclination between genders by cone beam computed tomographic method in edentulous patients over 50 years of age

The articular eminence is one of the main components of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), determining the extent of mouth opening, closing, and lateral movements. It is believed that the slope of the articular eminence changes with age, tooth loss, and bone resorption. The aim of this study is to examine the changes in the slope of the articular eminence related to gender and age in completely edentulous individuals over 50. The study sample consisted of CBCT records from the temporomandibular joint region of 30 completely edentulous women and 30 completely edentulous men. Slope measurements of the articular eminence were taken from the CBCT images. The normality of the data distribution was evaluated using skewness and kurtosis values and the Shapiro-Wilk test. Descriptive statistics were presented as mean and standard deviation for quantitative data, and as frequency and percentage for qualitative data. For slope measurements showing normal distribution, comparisons between men and women were performed using the Student's t-test. The paired t-test was used to compare the mean slope measurements from the right and left sides within gender groups based on the "Top Roof Line" and "Best Fit" methods. The significance level was set at p≤0.05, and the hypotheses were tested bidirectionally. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 23.0 (IBM Corp. Released 2015. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 23.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). No statistically significant difference was found between the right and left sides or between genders in terms of the slope of the articular eminence. It was observed that the slope of the eminence decreased more due to tooth loss than age, and that the likelihood of a flattened eminence increased in individuals who had been edentulous for an extended period. Keywords: Advanced age, completely edentulous, temporomandibular joint (TMJ), articular eminence, cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)