Keywords
root anatomy
root trunk length
root trunk types
Abstract
Introduction: Molar root morphology influences diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of periodontal disease. Root trunk length (RTL) is considered a key factor that influences periodontal prognosis. Knowledge of anatomy of RTL ensures clinician to assess the extent of periodontal destruction and thereby plan appropriate management.
Objective: To assess the RTL and types of root trunk of mandibular and maxillary molars.
Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was done on extracted mandibular and maxillary molar teeth with intact roots from 2022 March to 2023 September at Department of Periodontics and Oral Implantology, Kathmandu Medical College. Ethical approval was taken before data collection. Convenience sampling was done. Hou and Tasi (1997) classification was used for root trunk type. For analysis, SPSS v.20 software was used. Descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation, and median was calculated for quantitative data.
Results: Among 304 samples, 75 (24.7%) were maxillary molars and 229 (75.3%) were mandibular molars. The RTL of maxillary first molars were 4.32±1.05, 3.68±1.06, and 4.08±1.22 millimetres (mm) for mesial, buccal, and distal aspect respectively. The RTL of maxillary second molars were 6.13±1.89, 4.93±1.53, and 4.94±1.43 mm for mesial, buccal, and distal aspect respectively. The RTL of mandibular first molars were 3.72±1.78 and 4.07±1.89 mm for buccal and lingual aspect respectively. The RTL of mandibular second molars were 3.77±1.99 and 3.95±1.98 mm for buccal and lingual aspect respectively. Among 683 furcations, 277 (40.5%) were type A and 406 (59.4%) were type B.
Conclusions: The knowledge of variation in RTL and type may help in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of furcation involved tooth.
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