Evaluation of The Palatal Ruga Morphologies of Young Adult Individuals Attending A Dental School in Turkey

The aim of this study is to evaluate the change of palatal rugae morphology. The dental plaster models of 232 (133 females and 99 males) individuals aged between 18-40 years (mean age ± standard deviation: 32.3 ± 5.4) were examined to evaluate palatal rugae morphology. The length, shape, and direction of rugae were recorded. Types for length, shape, and direction were compared with Friedman and Wilcoxon’s signed rank tests regarding the number of occurrences. The differences between genders were assessed using the Mann–Whitney non-parametric tests. Primary ruga type is 5 to 10 mm / 10 mm or more. The most common rugae was the primary type and no significant difference was found in terms of rugae length by gender. The most common rugae was curved rugae. No significant difference was found between genders. The results of this study showed that no statistically significant differences were found between genders for the length and direction of rugae.