Abstract: Objective: To establish a method of morphologic measurement of the mandibles and obtain the average values of three dimensional morphologic measurements of the mandibles. Methods: A method of morphologic measurement of the mandibles was established firstly. The three dimensional CT data of 54 normal adult skulls were measured by this method. The data were analyzed by SPSS 13.0 statistical software. Results: In the study, 84 groups of mean values and standard deviations of the length, width, height, depth, thickness and angle of the mandibular contour in males and females were obtained. There were significant differences between the male and the female in the 66 of the 84 groups data, while the 16 of the 84 groups data had no significant differences and distributed symmetry on both sides of the mandibles. No correlation was found in the mandibular contour data in length, width, height and depth. Conclusion: The characteristics of adult mandibular contours are different between males and females, indicating that each individual has its own morphologic features.

Key words: Mandible, Anthropometry, Tomography, X-ray computed, Imaging, three-dimensional