A comparison of bone mineral density in the spine, hip and jaws of edentulous subjects

Objectives: The aim was to investigate the relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) of the jaws (mandible and maxilla) and other skeletal sites. In addition, the influence of gender, smoking and the number of years without natural teeth were examined. Materials and methods: 18 edentulous patients (9 females, 9 males) with a mean age of 67.1 (sd 12.6) years had DXA scans to assess the BMD of the lumbar spine and hip, together with the ramus, body and symphysis of the mandible and the anterior of the maxilla. Results: BMD values for the ramus were similar to those for the femur but significantly lower than the lumbar spine. The body and anterior mandible had higher values and the anterior maxilla lower values than both the femur and ramus. The ramus BMD showed moderately strong relationships with the standard measures of BMD in the spine and hip, but the BMD of other areas of the jaws showed no relationship with skeletal sites. The BMD for both the hip and the ramus showed an inverse relationship with increasing age. There was no statistically significant relationship between BMD of hip, spine and jaw and either years edentulous or cigarette years. (207) Conclusions: Although the ramus of the mandible may show correlation of BMD with skeletal sites, the areas of the jaws where implants may be placed do not. Therefore BMD of the skeletal sites could not be used to predict BMD of the jaws. The BMD of the jaws as measured by DXA showed no relationship with either years edentulous or cigarette smoking.