The dental status and the function of mastication are dependent on changes observed in the maxillo-mandibular bone over the course of physiological aging and also from osteoporosis. The aim of the present study was an attempt to utilize radiovisiography for evaluation of the mandibular bone density. The radiovisiographic method transfers a low dose rtg image to an electronic sensor and records it as a digital record to the computer memory. A computer program based on the analysis of "greyness" of the mandibular bone image and aluminium (Al) standard, calculates the relative bone density (D), the bone mineral density (BMD) and the bone mineral content (BMC). After initial calibration studies, a pilot clinical study was performed including 40 patients with and without osteoporosis. Significant differences in D and BMC of mandibular bone between men and women, and between patients with diagnosed osteoporosis and without osteoporotic symptoms were observed. No differences in BMD in the analyzed groups were found. The preliminary results show that the proposed program for computer analysis of radiovisiographic image may be a useful noninvasive tool for mandibular bone evaluation.

Keywords: mandibular bone, Bone Density, bone mineral content, radiovisiography, Osteoporosis