A radiographic study of location of mental foramen in a selected Turkish population on panoramic radiograph.

Purpose of this study was to investigate the most common position of the mental foramen in a selected Turkish population. The study sample included three hundred and sixty one panoramic radiographs of selected Turkish population taken in Faculty of Dentistry, University of Gazi. The most common position of the mental foramen was between the first premolar and the second premolar (71.5%). The mental foramen was symmetrical in 90.4% of patients. In this study, the difference of the location of the mental foramen in different ethnics groups was discussed. Clinicians and anthropologists should expect to find the position of the mental foramen to be symmetrical and between the first premolar and the second premolar teeth.