Morphological Evaluation of the Nasopalatine Canal in Patients With Different Facial Profiles and Ages.

Purpose: To evaluate the influence of facial profile and age on the morphology of the nasopalatine canal.

Materials And Methods: One hundred thirty-two cone-beam computed tomograms were classified according to facial profile-mesofacial, brachyfacial, and dolichofacial-and divided into the following age groups: 21 to 30, 31 to 40, 41 to 50, and 51 to 60 years. Measurements were obtained for openings of the incisive and nasopalatine foramina, alveolar bone thickness, and the full length, most constricted region, and volume of the nasopalatine canal. Intra- and inter-examiner agreements were calculated using the intraclass correlation coefficient. After exploratory and descriptive analysis, data were subjected to 2-way analysis of variance and Tukey test for comparisons between facial profiles and age groups. The significance level was 5% (α = 0.05).

Results: Intra- and inter-examiner reproducibilities were excellent for all measurements. Patients older than 50 years presented a significantly larger nasopalatine canal than patients 21 to 30 years old for all facial profiles (P ≤ .05). Linear measurements obtained from the nasopalatine canal showed no significant difference between facial profiles and age groups (P > .05).

Conclusions: The nasopalatine canal was not influenced by facial profile but did exhibit an increased volume with aging, particularly after 50 years of age.