Assessment of morphology of mandibular symphysis: a comparative study

Purpose This study aimed to assess and compare the morphology of the mandibular symphysis among individuals with orthognathic, retrognathic, and prognathic mandibles, in both male and female individuals.Materials and Methods A comparative study was conducted using 204 lateral cephalograms. Individuals were categorized into three groups based on N⊥B distance, with 68 samples in each group. Group 1(control group), group 2, and group 3 consisted of individuals with an orthognathic mandible, retrognathic mandible, and a prognathic mandible, respectively. Each group was further subdivided by gender (male and female), with 34 samples in each subgroup. Mandibular symphyseal width, height, and inclination were measured manually by trained orthodontists. The data were analysed using one-way ANOVA to compare the three main groups and unpaired t-tests to assess gender differences. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results Mandibular symphysis width exhibited statistically significant differences among the three groups. Mandibular symphysis height and mandibular symphysis inclination didn’t show any statistically significant differences among the three different groups. Mandibular symphysis width didn’t exhibit a statistically significant difference between males and females whereas, mandibular symphysis height (p = 0.005) and mandibular symphysis inclination (p = 0.05) show a statistically significant difference among males and femalesConclusion The morphology of the mandibular symphysis exhibited notable variations across orthognathic, retrognathic, and prognathic mandibles, as well as between male and female subjects.