Cortical bone mineral density in the mandible and osteoporosis status in postmenopausal women.

Mineral density of the cortical bone of the mandible was determined by single-energy QCT (quantitative computed tomography) for 77 menopausal women. Bone mineral densities (BMD) were measured in the buccal and lingual layers of the cortex, distally from the foramen mentale, on both sides of the mandible. All the women were edentulous in that region, and the alveolar processes were far resorbed. These results were compared with the BMD values of the femoral neck, lumbar spine, and trabecular portion of the mandible between the detected layers of cortex. The BMD of the buccal cortex correlated remarkably well with all values, except those of the trabecular portion. Of the women tested, the correlations were lowest in the least osteoporotic group. The values for the lingual cortex did not correlate with other variables as well as did those for the buccal cortex, but in the most osteoporotic part of the sample the lingual cortex values correlated significantly with the BMD of the trabecular portion. The BMD values for the buccal cortex were significantly higher than those for the lingual cortex.