Investigation of the prevalence of genial tubercle in cone-beam computed tomography images and morphological evaluation in a group of turkish populations

In the present study, it was aimed to evaluate the incidence of genial tubercle (GT) in cone beam computed tomography images (CBCT) and to determine its morphological features. In our study, 356 CBCT images of patients (228 females and 128 males) aged 18 years and older were obtained from the radiology archive of Hacettepe University Faculty of Dentistry. GTs were identified and classified in axial, coronal and sagittal sections. The width (GT-w) and height (GT-h) of the GTs, the distance of the GTs to the apex of the mandibular central incisors (GT-I), the distance to the mandibular basis (GT-M) and mandibular anterior thickness (MT) were measured and statistically analyzed. The incidence of GTs in the Turkish population was 90.4% of the patients, while at least one GT was detected, 9.6% of them did not have GT, the most common type was GT-3 (33.1%), the least common GT- 5 (9.6%). Between genders and age groups and GT types (p=0.007, p=0.017); between genders and GT-w, GT-h, GT-I and MT (p<0.001); between age groups and GT-h and GT-I (p=0.038, p<0.001) difference were statistically significant. The interaction between age and gender was statistically significant on GT-h and GT-M values (p=0.029, p=0.030). The GT-w, GT-h, GT-I and MT values of men were higher than that of women. Our study suggests that the morphological analysis of the GT's can be a valuable and effective tool for many medical and dentistry applications such as the detection of the safe zone before implant surgery, the treatment of OSA, the detection of mandibular asymmetry, etc. Especially in OSA surgery, GT morphological data measured on CBCT images can be used as a guide.