Changes in the mandibular angle in the dentulous and edentulous Saudi population

Abstract

The size of the gonial and antegonial angles as well as the antegonial depth were measured in 200 panoramic radiographs which belong to 100 edentulous and 100 dentate individuals who attend the dental clinic, of the College of Dentistry, king Saud University. The panoramic radiographs of the edentulous patients were taken before construction of the complete denture. There was no significance difference between edentulous and dentate one regarding the gonial and antegonial angle, but there was a difference in the depth where the edentulous patients had deep antegonial notch than dentate ones. Irrespective to the dental status, no significant differences were observed for the gonial and antegonial angle between males and females. Also, no correlation was detected between age , gender and dental status with changes in the mean of the gonial and antegonial angles in the edentulous individuals. This indicate that the masticatory muscles did not affect the morphology the gonial and antegonial angle in edentulous patients when compared with dentate ones. The size of the gonial and antegonial angle in Saudi population is within the same ranges of others populations.