Assessment Of The Thickness Of Palatal Masticatory Mucosa Using Cone-beam Computed Tomography

Objective: This study used cone-beam CT to measure the thickness of palatal masticatory mucosa in healthy adults,and analyzed the possible relationship with tooth position,gender,age,height,weight,BMI index,and palatal vault morphology and palatal mucosal thickness.Provide a reference for mucosal transplantation.Methods: The Bland-Altman method was used to verify the consistency of the thickness of the palatal mucosa measured by the cone-beam CT image measurement method and the puncture measurement method.Then,the cone palatal mucosa thickness of 86 Han and 20 Gelao volunteers was measured by cone-beam CT image measurement,Han volunteers are divided into youth group and middle-aged group according to age,and finally statistical analysis of palatal masticatory mucosal thickness,and its relationship with tooth position,gender,age,height,weight,BMI index,and the ratio of the width and height of palatal vault morphology.Results: The thickness of the palatal masticatory mucosa tends to increase with the tooth position in the distal direction;the same tooth position,within the range of 3-12 mm from the gingival margin,the thicker the palatal masticatory mucosa is closer to the midline of the iliac crest;at the position 3 mm from the gingival margin,The thickness of palatal masticatory mucosa of each tooth is stable between 2-3 mm;At the sites of 6 mm and 9 mm from the gingival margin,The first premolar and second premolar have the thickest palatal masticatory mucosa and are larger than 3.5mm;There was no correlation between mucosal thickness and gender,height,weight and BMI index.The thickness of palatal masticatory mucosa in the middle-aged group was higher than that in the young group(P<0.05).There was no significant difference in palatal masticatory mucosa between the male and female groups;High-vault was with thicker mucosa than low-vault in the molar area at 12 mm of the second molar(P<0.05);There was no significant difference in the thickness of palatal masticatory mucosa between the Han and Gelao nationalities.Conclusion: Measuring the thickness of the palatal masticatory mucosa is highly consistent with the puncture method for measuring the thickness of the palatal masticatory mucosa,which is worthy of clinical promotion;The palatal masticatory mucosa of the premolar is more suitable for obtaining the graft.The thickness of the Han nationality can be referred to when the Gelao nationality the palatal masticatory mucosa is autografted.