{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T18:09:40Z","timestamp":1790791780618,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,17]],"date-time":"2024-06-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1718582400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Diagnostics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The mental foramen (MF) is an opening found bilaterally on the anterolateral aspect of the mandible; it can be round or oval and have different diameters. One of the anatomical variants of the jaw is the presence of an accessory mental foramen (AMF). These are usually smaller than the MF and can be located above, below, or to the sides of the main MF. The objective of this study was to recognize the presence of AMF in dry jaws of the Chilean population and collect information about its clinical relevance reported in the literature. In this descriptive observational study, we have collected dried jaws obtained from three higher education institutions in Santiago de Chile, from the Department of Morphology of the Andr\u00e9s Bello University, the Normal Human Anatomy Unit of the University of Santiago, and the Human Anatomy pavilion from the Faculty of Medicine of the Finis Terrae University. The samples for this research were obtained by convenience, and the observation of the jaws was carried out in the human anatomy laboratories of each institution by three evaluators independently, and a fourth evaluator was included to validate that each evaluation was correct. The sample for this research came from 260 dry jaws, showing the following findings from the total jaws studied, and to classify as an accessory MF, it will be examined and measured so that it complies with what is declared in the literature as the presence of AMF, which is between 0.74 mm. and 0.89 mm. There were 17 studies included with a sample that fluctuated between 1 and 4000, with a cumulative total of 7946 and an average number of jaws analyzed from the studies of 467.4, showing statistically significant differences between the means with the sample analyzed in this study; p = 0.095. For the cumulative prevalence of the presence of AMF, this was 3.07 in this study, and in the compared studies, the average of AMF was 8.01%, which did not present a statistically significant difference; p = 0.158. Regarding the presence of variants of unilateral AMF, this occurred in five jaws, which is equivalent to 1.84% in the sample of this study, while in previous studies, it was 7.5%, being higher on the left side than on the right. The presence of AMF is a variant with high prevalence if we compare it with other variants of the jaw. Knowledge of the anatomy and position of the AMF is crucial to analyze different scenarios in the face of surgical procedures or conservative treatments of the lower anterior dental region.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/diagnostics14121277","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,17]],"date-time":"2024-06-17T11:14:16Z","timestamp":1718622856000},"page":"1277","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Morphological Characteristics of the Double Mental Foramen and Its Relevance in Clinical Practice: An Observational Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Alejandro","family":"Bruna-Mejias","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Ciencias y Geografia, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas, Universidad de Playa Ancha, Valparaiso 2360072, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0098-0224","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pablo","family":"Nova-Baeza","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unidad de Anatom\u00eda Humana Normal, Escuela de Medicina, Facultad de Ciencias M\u00e9dicas, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago 9160000, Chile"},{"name":"Departamento de Ciencias Qu\u00edmicas y Biol\u00f3gicas, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Bernardo O\u2019Higgins, Santiago 8370993, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Florencia","family":"Torres-Riquelme","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Morfolog\u00eda, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Andr\u00e9s Bello, Santiago 8370146, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maria Fernanda","family":"Delgado-Retamal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Morfolog\u00eda, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Andr\u00e9s Bello, Santiago 8370146, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mathias","family":"Orellana-Donoso","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Escuela de Medicina, Universidad Finis Terrae, Santiago 7501015, Chile"},{"name":"Department of Morphological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Science, Universidad San Sebasti\u00e1n, Santiago 8420524, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alejandra","family":"Suazo-Santiba\u00f1ez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Universidad de Las Am\u00e9ricas, Santiago 8370040, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Walter","family":"Sepulveda-Loyola","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Universidad de Las Am\u00e9ricas, Santiago 8370040, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Iv\u00e1n","family":"Vald\u00e9s-Orrego","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Aut\u00f3noma de Chile, Santiago 8910060, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2599-8474","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Juan","family":"Sanchis-Gimeno","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"GIAVAL Research Group, Department of Anatomy and Human Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Valencia, 46001 Valencia, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Juan Jos\u00e9","family":"Valenzuela-Fuenzalida","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Morfolog\u00eda, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Andr\u00e9s Bello, Santiago 8370146, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"285","DOI":"10.5603\/FM.2013.0048","article-title":"The mandible and its foramen: Anatomy, anthropology, embryology and resulting clinical implications","volume":"72","author":"Lipski","year":"2013","journal-title":"Folia Morphol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"805","DOI":"10.31729\/jnma.7770","article-title":"Left Accessory Mental Foramen in Dry Mandibles in Department of Anatomy in a Medical College: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study","volume":"60","author":"Tiwari","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. 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