Incidence of mandibular nutrient canals in hypertensive and diabetes mellitus patients: A digital radiographic study Dhir Preeti, Senior Lecturer, David Chaya M, Professor and Head, Ramnarayan BK, Reader, Sanjay CJ, Senior Lecturer, Keerthi G, Senior Lecturer Address for Correspondence: Dr. Preeti Dhir, Senior Lecturer, Deptt. of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Desh Bhagat Dental College and Hospital, Muktsar, Punjab E-mail: drpreetikumra@yahoo.in
Online published on 28 May, 2014. Abstract Objectives To study the presence of mandibular nutrient canals in healthy dentulous individuals and in hypertensive and diabetes mellitus patients. To also investigate if the presence of nutrient canals may be used as an indicator of underlying systemic disease. Material & Methods Study was conducted on 120 subjects in the age group of 20- 80 years who were divided into 4 groups with 30 subjects in each group. The patients were further subdivided according to their periodontal status in Group 2, 3 and 4. The case history was recorded on preformatted case sheet, and further examination was done for clinical signs of periodontitis. Digital radiographs of the mandibular anterior region were taken which were evaluated for the presence of nutrient canals. Results On comparing group 1 of normal healthy individuals with Group 2, Group 3 and Group 4; a statistically significant difference was found in hypertensive patients, diabetes mellitus patients, hypertensive with periodontitis patients, diabetes mellitus with periodontitis patients; hypertensive and diabetes mellitus patients with periodontitis, hypertensive and diabetes mellitus patients without periodontitis. No statistically significant difference was seen between hypertensive patients without periodontitis, and diabetes mellitus patients without periodontitis. Conclusion In our study it was found that the incidence of nutrient canals was higher in patients who had hypertension and diabetes mellitus associated with other conditions such as periodontitis. The increased incidence of nutrient canals can act as an adjunct diagnostic marker for detection of underlying systemic diseases like diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Top Keywords Hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus, Periodontitis, Nutrient canals. Top |