10 3 Academia Anatomica International ¦ Volume 5 ¦ Issue 2 ¦ July-December 2019 103 Morphometric Analysis of the Mandibular Foramen from Different Bony Landmarks in Dry Human Mandibles Suman Kumari 1 , Rajendra Prasad 2 1 Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomy, Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital, Gaya, 2 Professor, Department of Anatomy, Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital, Gaya. Introduction: Mandibular foramen is an irregular foramen located just above the center of the medial surface of the ramus of the mandible leading to mandibular canal through which inferior alveolar nerve and vessels will transmits. Aim: The aim of the study was to find exact location of mandibular foramen from different anatomical landmark. Subjects and Methods: The present study evaluated 60 dry human mandibles & all the distances were measured from center of mandible to different landmark on both sides. Results: The mean of MF-AB distance on right side is 15.6mm & on left side is 15.3mm. Mean of MF-PB distance are 12.0mm & 11.0mm on right side and left side respectively. MF-MB distance 23.4 mm and 22.9 mm are the mean of MF-MN on right and left side respectively. The mean of MF- AG is 23.2mm on right side & 24.2mm on left side. Conclusion: There is great variation found in the position of MF in previous studies. The present study helps in dental anaesthesia and also would help dental surgeons to avoid complications. Keywords: Mandibular foramen, Landmark, Inferior alveolar nerve distance. Corresponding Author: Dr. Suman Kumari, Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomy, Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital, Gaya. Received: November 2019 Accepted: November 2019 Introduction The mandible is the strongest and largest bone of the face which forms the lower jaw. It has a ‘U’ shaped anterior part, the body of the mandible and a quadrilateral bony plate which is known as the ramus. The mandibular foramen is an irregular foramen which is located just above the center of the medial surface of the ramus of the mandible. [1] The inferior alveolar nerve and the vessels enter through the mandibular foramen to reach the mandibular body and give fine branches that supply the mandibular teeth, gums and the lower lip. [2] The mandibular foramen leads into the mandibular canal, a canal which traverses the body of the mandible. The inferior alveolar nerve block is the commonest local anesthetic technique which is used for anaesthetizing the lower jaw in various surgical & dental operations on the mandible and mandibular teeth such as removal of impaction, reductions of fractures and extraction of teeth. Unfortunately the failure rate of this technique is high and commonest cause being inaccurate localization of mandibular foramen. [3] The success of this technique highly depends on the proximity of the needle tip to the mandibular foramen (MF) at the time of the anesthetic injection. [4] Inferior alveolar nerve block failure is not uncommon and it occurs even with experienced hands. [5-7] Failure with this procedure could be as high as 45%. Variations in the location of the mandibular foramen have been suggested in various studies. Some studies of adult mandibles in different races have given varied results regarding the location of the mandibular foramen from the anterior and posterior borders, angle of the mandible and the lowest point on the mandibular notch. [3,8-10] The aim of this study is to determine the position of the mandibular foramen from various anatomical landmarks in several dry adult human mandibles and provide valuable information to our clinician and dental practitioners. Subjects and Methods The study was designed and performed in department of Anatomy, at ANMMCH, Gaya. The study was approved by institutional research committee. 60 dry human mandibles were selected from the skeletal collection of the department of Anatomy. All were adult mandibles and the exact age and sex of which were not known. Only those mandibles were selected which had first or second molars or canine tooth present on the same side. The edentulous, damaged mandibles and mandibles with tilted occlusal plane of the molars were excluded from the study. The positions of the mandibular foramen from various landmarks were recorded on both the sides of the mandibular ramus, so ISSN (0): 2455-5274; ISSN (P): 2617-5207