The morphology of the greater palatine foramen and greater palatine canal depending on sex

Data on the anatomical variability of the foramen magnum and palatine canal are important for surgical interventions in the posterior part of the upper jaw, as well as for the blockade of the pterygopalatine ganglion with a surgical palatal approach. The aim of the study was to study the differences in the morphology of the foramen magnum and the palatine canal in persons of the first adulthood period. The object of the study was 261 people (the first adulthood period, of which 132 were women and 129 were men). On cone-beam computed tomograms, the number of large palatal openings, their shape, anteroposterior and medio-distal diameters, the length of the large palatal canal, its shape, its medio-distal and anteroposterior diameters in the upper, middle and lower thirds of the canal were determined. It was found that in persons of both sexes, the most common form of the large palatine opening was oval, elongated in the anteroposterior direction, drop-shaped, rounded; the least common - crescent, triangular, diamond-shaped, helical. The dimensional characteristics of the medio-distal and anteroposterior diameter of the large palatine foramen are greater in men than in women. In persons of both sexes, the most common crescent shape of the large palatine canal, less often - a zigzag canal and a funnelshaped canal with a bend in the lower third. The length of the great palatine canal is longer in men than in women. The anteroposterior diameter of the large palatine canal is smaller in women than in men. The medio-distal diameters of the greater palatine canal are smaller in women than in men. As a result of the study, it was found that the greater palatine foramen and canal have pronounced sex differences. The revealed sex differences in the form, as well as in the morphometric parameters, are of great clinical importance in the procedures of premedication and anesthesia during surgical interventions on the maxillofacial region and in the clinic of facial neuralgia