Cone beam computed tomographic survey of the mesiobuccal root canal anatomy in the maxillary first and second molar teeth of an Iranian population

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the mesiobuccal (MB) root canal(s) anatomy of the maxillary first and second molar teeth in an Iranian population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cone beam computed tomography images of 280 teeth (145 maxillary first molars and 135 maxillary second molars) were analyzed to determine the number and types of the MB root canals. Chi-square test was used to examine the relationship between the number of MB canals and sex and Mann–Whitney analysis was used to define the relationship between the number of canals and the buccopalatal dimension of the MB roots. The level of interobservers’ agreement was assessed with Kappa test. RESULTS: Nearly 44.8% of the first molar and 18.5% of the second molar teeth had an additional MB canal (MB2). Types I and III of root canals had the highest frequencies. There was no significant relationship between the number of MB root canals of maxillary first and second molars and sex (P = 0.829). The relationship between the buccopalatal dimension of the MB roots and the number of root canals was shown to be statistically significant (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Presence of MB2 had a relatively high frequency, especially in the maxillary first molars. The mean buccopalatal dimension of the MB roots showed to be interrelated with the number of root canals.