Calcification in the stylohyoid ligament.

This article describes the incidence of calcification in the stylohyoid ligament in a sample of the patient population of the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry. The records of 479 patients were reviewed, with particular attention given to the panoramic radiograph. The patients ranged in age from 4 to 78 years, with a mean age of 29. There was a sharp increase in incidence of calcification during the first three decades of age from 45.3% in the first decade to 86.2% in the third, with a gradual increase from the fourth to the seventh decade (87.3% to 92%). The eighth decade, represented by nine patients, showed an incidence of 100%. There appears to be no race predilection for calcification, a slight sex predilection for females, and an age incidence that seems to support both the developmental and degenerative theories of etiology of calcification in the stylohyoid ligament.