Morphometric analysis of the mandibular foramen of Bush Dog (Speothos venaticus, LUND 1842)

Abstract

The objective of this work was to perform a morphometric evaluation of the mandibular foramen of Bush Dog in order to establish its more precise topography and to offer subsides for a more effective local anesthetic blockage of the mandibular alveolar nerve. Twenty hemimandibles of Bush Dog (Speothos Venaticus) were used. With the aid of a universal caliper rule, the 6 reference points were measured: LONG (from the most lateral margin of the condylar process up to the first inferior incisor tooth); TRANS (from the ventral margin up to the dorsal mandible margin between the second premolar tooth and the first inferior molar tooth); FVENTRAL (from the most rostral margin of the mandibular foramen up to the ventral mandibular margin); ANG (from the end of the most rostral margin of the mandibular foramen up to the mandible angular process), COND (from the end of the most rostral margin of the mandibular foramen up to the medial margin of the mandible condylar process) and COR (from the most rostral margin of the mandibular foramen up to the medial margin of the mandible cononoid process). Following, the data obtained were submitted to descriptive statistical analysis and to the student’s t-test with p = 0.05. It was observed that for a better local anesthetic blockage of the inferior alveolar nerve, the needle should be introduced 13,11 to 14,01 mm from the mandible ventral margin and 21,45 to 21,94 mm from the angular process.