Evaluating Mandibular Cortical Index Quantitatively

OBJECTIVES: The aim was to assess whether Fractal Dimension and Lacunarity analysis can discriminate patients having different mandibular cortical shape. METHODS: Panoramic radiographs of 52 patients were evaluated for mandibular cortical index. Weighted Kappa between the observations were varying between 0.718–0.805. These radiographs were scanned and converted to binary images. Fractal Dimension and Lacunarity were calculated from the regions where best represents the cortical morphology. RESULTS: It was found that there were statistically significant difference between the Fractal Dimension and Lacunarity of radiographs which were classified as having Cl 1 and Cl 2 (Fractal Dimension P:0.000; Lacunarity P:0.003); and Cl 1 and Cl 3 cortical morphology (Fractal Dimension P:0.008; Lacunarity P:0.001); but there was no statistically significant difference between Fractal Dimension and Lacunarity of radiographs which were classified as having Cl 2 and Cl 3 cortical morphology (Fractal Dimension P:1.000; Lacunarity P:0.758). CONCLUSIONS: FD and L can differentiate Cl 1 mandibular cortical shape from both Cl 2 and Cl 3 mandibular cortical shape but cannot differentiate Cl 2 from Cl 3 mandibular cortical shape on panoramic radiographs.