Evaluation of mandibular bone structure in patients with ectodermal dysplasia

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the bone structure of patients with ectodermal dysplasia (ED) using radiomorphometric indexes and fractal analysis (FA) on dental panoramic radiographs (DPR) and to perform comparisons with a healthy control group.Material and Methods: The DPRs of a total of 38 patients, including 19 patients with ED and 19 healthy controls, were used in this study.Fractal dimension (FD), panoramic mandibular index (PMI), mental index (MI), and mandibular cortical index (MCI) were measured on the DPRs.Results: There was no significant relationship between gender and MI, PMI, and FD values.The distribution of FD, MI, and PMI measurements according to ED showed that MI and PMI values showed statistically significant differences (MI: p=0.023,PMI: p=0.003).While ROI1-r and ROI1-l FD values showed a significant difference between the group with ED and the control group (p=0.001,p=0.002, respectively), FD measurements in ROI2-r/l and ROI3-r/l regions did not show a statistically significant difference between the groups.There was a statistically significant difference between the group with ED and the control group in terms of MCI (p=0.029).There was no significant difference between MCI and other parameters (p>0.05).Discussion: Differences in FD and radiomorphometric indexes observed between patients with ED and healthy controls indicate the impact of ED on mandibular bone structure.