Journal of Advances in Medicine and Medical Research

Introduction: The styloid process arises from petrous part of temporal bone as an osseous projection and shows considerable anatomic variability. The elongated styloid process presents with various signs and symptoms. The manifestations may vary widely such as cervicofacial pain, cerebral ischaemia and even death. Diagnosis can be made by clinical evaluation and different imaging modalities of which Cone Beam Computed Tomography(CBCT) gives a more accurate measurement. The morphological knowledge of styloid process and its variation is essential as it has various clinical implications in the field of dentistry, cardiology and forensic sciences.

Aim: The objective of the present study is to evaluate 3 dimensionally the structural variation of styloid process, to evaluate the length and to analyse the prevalence of elongated styloid process according to age and gender using CBCT.

Study Design: Cross sectional retrospective study.

Materials and Methods: A series of CBCT images from 100 patients comprising of 74 males and 26 females were collected retrospectively at Ragas Dental College, Chennai during the period from September 2016 to October 2016. CBCT of study subjects were obtained using Galileos Comfort Plus. Statistics used was Chi Square test and analysis was done by using the statistical package SPSS version 20.0

Results: The prevalence of elongated styloid process was 56.6% with more prevalence in males 46.5% with 47% being Type I elongation(with uninterrupted integrity of styloid process) and 41% had type A pattern of calcification(calcified outline of styloid process)

Conclusion: This study provides 3 dimensional knowledge of anatomical variation in styloid process according to age and gender. Assessment should be done during routine assessment to rule out any abnormalities.