[Topographical and morphological study of the mandibular foramen in black Africans from the Ivory Coast]

Sixty one dry mandibles. have been studied to provide some anatomical informations on the position, shape and size of the mental foramen among adults Black Africans of Ivory Coast. According the results, in the male mandibles, the mental foramen lay 27,31 mm behind the symphyses , 74,75 mm forward the post border of the ramus, 14,89 mm above the lower border and 16,16 mm under the alveolar margin. In the female mandibles, the mental foramen lay 27,16mm behind the symphysis, 69,10 mm forward the post border of the ramus, 14,21 mm above the lower border and 15,66 mm under the alveolar margin. This study confirmed that on the horizontal plane, the mental foramen lay approximatively one quarter of the distance from mandibular symphyses to the post border of the ramus. The margin of mental foramina was elliptic in 66,67 % and 64,52 % of the cases respectively in male and female mandibles. The mean sizes of the long and short axes of forarnina were 5,03 mm and 3,97 mm in the male mandibles. These dimensions were 4,99 mm and 3,87 mm in the female mandibles.