The morphology and location of the mandibular lingula in south indian population using cone-beam computed tomography-a retro-sectional study

Objectives: The precise anatomical of the lingula of the mandible is clinically significant because it is more susceptible to injury during a variety of oral and maxillofacial surgical procedures. This is the first study to identify, classify and measure the mandibular lingula using cone-beam computed tomography in South Indian population. Materials and methods: A retrospective study was done to measure the shape, height, and location of the lingula in relation to surrounding structures using cone-beam computed tomographic images. The shape of the lingula was classified according to the method given by Tuly et al. (2000) The location was determined by five distances from the lingular tip according to the method given by Ahmet et al. Results: The most common shape of the lingual is truncated, followed by triangular [32 % (264)]. The mean height of the lingula was 7.97 ± 1.84 mm. The average distance of lingula to the mandibular ramus (anterior and posterior borders) was found to be 16.7 ± 2.7 and 13.0 ± 2.3 mm, respectively. The lingula was located at 11.4 ± 2.5 mm from the mandibular notch, 14.10 ± 4.74 mm from the mandibular base and 16.21 ± 4.54 mm from the distal side of mandibular second molar tooth. Conclusion: The study provides a new insight to the morphology, height and location of the lingula in the South Indian population. These findings would assist the Oral surgeons to localize the lingula and would avoid intraoperative complications to the patient.