morphologic measurements of anatomic landmarks in pulp chambers of human first molars: a study of bitewing radiographs

introduction: knowledge of the anatomic location and dimension of the molar pulp chamber may preserve healthy pulp during operative procedure and reduce risk of perforation of chamber during access preparation. a review of literatures regarding the morphology of pulp chamber however revealed very little information; so the aim of this in vivo study was to measure the dimensions of first molar pulp chambers as seen on bitewing (bw) radiographs. materials and methods: in this cross-sectional study molar's bw radiographs of 130 subjects in two age groups were taken under standardized conditions (group of 18-25 years old subjects and group of 50-65 years old subjects). the films were digitized and nine anatomical landmarks were evaluated from the image of each first molar as follow: a; mesial to distal pulp horn distance, b; mesial to distal walls at the middle of pulp chamber, c; mesial to distal orifices, d; mesial cusp tip to its horn, e; distal cusp tip to its horn, f; pulp chamber height, g; pulp chamber floor to furcation, h; pulp chamber ceiling to furcation, i; cusp tips to furcation. the data were evaluated by using autocad (2007) software with 0.00 precision. two way anova test (uni-variant analysis) were used to determine the interaction between restoration and age on pulp chamber dimensions. results: there was no significant difference in pulp chamber dimensions between the genders. although there was significant reduction in the size of pulp chamber with advancing age, no significant differences were found in the restored and non restored teeth. conclusion: the finding of this study showed size reduction and changes of pulp chamber with age so may enhance knowledge to minimize errors during endodontics treatments.