Classifications of mandibular canal branching:A review of literature

作     者：Mauricio Augusto Aquino Castro Manuel Oscar Lagravere-Vich Tania Mara Pimenta Amaral Mauro Henrique Guimaraes Abreu Ricardo Alves Mesquita 

作者机构：Department of Oral Surgery and PathologySchool of DentistryFederal University of Minas Gerais Graduate Orthodontic ProgramUniversity of AlbertaUniversity of Alberta Department of Social and Preventive DentistrySchool of DentistryFederal University of Minas Gerais 

出 版 物：《World Journal of Radiology》 (世界放射学杂志（英文版）（电子版）)

年 卷 期：2015年第7卷第12期

页      面：531-537页

学科分类：0831[工学-生物医学工程（可授工学、理学、医学学位）] 100207[医学-影像医学与核医学] 1006[医学-中西医结合] 1003[医学-口腔医学] 1002[医学-临床医学] 1001[医学-基础医学(可授医学、理学学位)] 08[工学] 1010[医学-医学技术（可授医学、理学学位）] 100302[医学-口腔临床医学] 100106[医学-放射医学] 100602[医学-中西医结合临床] 10[医学] 

基　　金：National Council for Scientific Technological Development (CNPq) [309209/2010-2] 

主　　题：Inferior alveolar nerve Mandibular canal Bifid mandibular canal Dental radiography Cone-beam computed tomography 

摘      要：AIM: To gather existing radiographic classifications of mandibular canals branching, considering the criteria on which these were ***: The search for studies on mandibular canals based on imaging exams included literature reviews, epidemiological studies of prevalence, descriptive studies, or case reports. An electronic search in the MEDLINE(Ovid SP), Pub Med, EMBASE(Ovid SP), Web of Science(Thompson Reuters), and Scopus(Elsevier) databases was performed, as well as a manual evaluation of the references of the selected articles. Combinations of key words were placed in each database. No restrictions were imposed regarding the year of publication or language. References collected in duplicate were removed by the authors. A table was drawn up, containing the included studies and respective interest ***: Six classifications of mandibular canals branching were selected for the present literature review. Four were based on two-dimensional radiographic exams, and two were performed based on threedimensional tomographic exams. Three-dimensional classifications were determined based on the analysis found in the least number of exams, comparatively to two-dimensional studies. The prevalence of mandibular canal branching varied from 0% to 38.75% in the works based on two-dimensional exams, while those found inthree-dimensional exams ranged from 15.6% to 65%. The studies were mostly referred to branches that began in the mandibular ramus. Just one classification considered the branches that began in the mandibular body ***: Three-dimensional exams appear to be the best method to view mandibular canal branching. Further studies are warranted to determine its true prevalence and questions concerning to associations.