CHANGES OF TRABECULAR PATTERN OF THE JAW BONE WITH AGING IN THE INTRAORAL ROENTGENOGRAM
1988 Volume 28 Issue 4 Pages 422-436
Details
1988 Volume 28 Issue 4 Pages 422-436
The purpose of this study was to clarify how the trabecular pattern of human jaw bone changes through a lifetime. This study may be useful not only for the diagnosis of oral diseases and diseases of bone metabolism as well as for the evaluation of their treatment but also interesting from the standpoint of forensic odontology.
In the present study, changes of the trabecular pattern followed up for 5 years were analysed with a computer imaging technique using intraoral roentgenograms of the lower incisor region.
As for the taking of roentgenograms, a standardized intraoral roentgenographic film holder was prepared for individual subjects to obtain a similar roentgenogram each time. The roentgenograms were taken once a year. A total 37 subjects were examined in this study whose age ranged from their teens to their sixties. The trabeculation was evaluated by recording the roentgenogram as a digital image on an image memory of 512×512×8 bits in size using a video camera followed by extraction of trabecular components from the band pass filtering of this image. The two dimensional crosscorrelation coefficient between initial roentgenogram and subsequent roentgenograms taken with elapsed time was determined and the trabecular changes were then expressed numerically. The results thus obtained were summarized as follows:
1. It was revealed that the correlation value of trabecular pattern on the intraoral roentgenograms over 5 years in each age group from teens to sixties slightly changed with aging.
2. Almost no change occurred in the mean correlation value of 5 years in each age group from teens to fourties but it changed to some extent in the fifties and sixties.
3. The trabecular pattern changed as a dissection of trabeculation or as a ranging of neighboring trabeculation but the whole bone trabecular never changed.
4. Since trabecular changes during a 5-years period seemed negligible judging from its correlation value, the trabecular pattern must be applicable for individual discrimination in forensic odontology.
