An Elongated Mental Spine: Case Report

The mental spines (superior and inferior), also called the genial tubercles, are located in the midline on the lingual surface of the mandible. Normally, the mental spine consists of a superior pair and an inferior pair of prominences and is of small size. The mental spine provides muscle attachments to the genioglossus muscle, which attaches to the superior pair, and to the geniohyoid muscle, which attaches to the inferior pair. Here, we report a case of the mandible with an elongated mental spine harvested from a 57-year-old Caucasian woman’s cadaveric head. The dimensions of the elongated mental spine are 10.00 mm (length) × 2.72 mm (width) × 8.55 mm (height). Elongated mental spines are rarely reported as they are usually asymptomatic. Practitioners who intend to perform any procedures in the sublingual and submental regions should be aware of such structural variation.

[1]  R. Tubbs,et al.  Clinical anatomy and surgical significance of the lingual foramina and their canals , 2017, Clinical anatomy.

[2]  T. V. Arx,et al.  Clinical Oral Anatomy: A Comprehensive Review for Dental Practitioners and Researchers , 2016 .

[3]  S. Standring.  Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice , 2015 .

[4]  E. H. van der Meij,et al.  Fracture of the genial tubercles of the mandible: case report and review of the literature. , 2014, Journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery : official journal of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.

[5]  E. Borgo,et al.  Rare enlargement of the genial tubercles , 2010, Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy.

[6]  Kaoru Kobayashi,et al.  Anatomical characteristics of the mandibular lingual foramina observed on limited cone-beam CT images. , 2009, Clinical oral implants research.

[7]  R. Tubbs,et al.  Anatomical variation in arterial supply of the mandible with special regard to implant placement. , 2008, International journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery.

[8]  R. Jacobs,et al.  Lingual foramina on the mandibular midline revisited: A macroanatomical study , 2007, Clinical anatomy.

[9]  H. D. Silveira,et al.  Radiographic evaluation of the relationship between the projection of genial tubercles and the lingual foramen. , 2002, Dento maxillo facial radiology.

[10]  A. Čelebić,et al.  Resorptive Changes of Maxillary and Mandibular Bone Structures in Removable Denture Wearers , 2002 .

[11]  M. Anand,et al.  Variations in the pattern of mental spines and spinous mental foramina in dry adult human mandibles , 2000, Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy.

[12]  J. Meiring,et al.  Mandibular spine: A case report , 1997, Clinical anatomy.

[13]  M. Iyomasa,et al.  Morphologic analysis of the "spina mentalis" in adult mandibles of Brazilian whites and negroes. , 1977, Revista brasileira de pesquisas medicas e biologicas.

[14]  B. M. Monheimer.  Exostosis of the genial tubercles of the mandible. , 1957, The New Zealand medical journal.

[15]  A. Thomson.  On the Presence of Genial Tubercles on the Mandible of Man, and their Suggested Association with the Faculty of Speech. , 1915, Journal of anatomy and physiology.