Morphometric characteristics and typology of the coronoid process of the mandible

Abstract

We aimed to investigate morphological types of the coronoid process, the angle between coronoid process and condylar process and the area of the coronoid processes of mandibles from two different time periods (Contemporary and Byzantine). We found that 60% and 64.2% of all coronoid processes were hook shaped, 20% and 21.4% were triangular shaped and 20% and 14.28% were rounded shaped at right and left sides respectively in contemporary period group; while in Byzantine group, 66.6% and 61.4% of all coronoid processes were hook shaped, 17.9% and 13.6% were triangular shaped and 15.4% and 25% were rounded shaped at right and left sides respectively. Bilateralism has been found in 74.2% (65.2% hook, 13% round, 21.8% triangular) in contemporary period group and 21.2% (64.3% hook, 14.3% round, 21.4% triangular) in Byzantine period group. Mean areas of the coronoid processes were 1.94 +/- 0.5 cm2 and 2.21 +/- 0.4 cm2 at right and left sides respectively in contemporary period group and 2.00 +/- 1.0 cm2 and 2.22 +/- 0.6 cm2 on right and left sides respectively in Byzantine period group. The means of the angle between two processes were 99.1 +/- 10.5 degrees and 94.9 +/- 7.6 degrees for contemporary group and 101.01 +/- 9.2 degrees and 98.9 +/- 8.5 degrees for Byzantine group at right and left sides respectively. We found that the types of the coronoid processes showed laterality for both groups and there was significant difference between areas of left and right sides of the coronoid processes of contemporary group (p<0.05). These comparisons and population specific results may be beneficial for anthropologists, forensic scientists and also for reconstructive surgeons.