The same anatomic landmark is shown as bifid mandibular canal or retromolar canal in different sources. Is retromolar canal a type of bifid mandibular canal or are they different anatomic variants?
http://isdent.org/search.php?where=aview&id=10.5624/isd.2013.43.4.309&code=2080ISD&vmode=PUBREADER#!po=6.25000
The two structures are different but the retromolar canal may be part of a bifid mandibular canal. A retromolar canal does not necessarily contribute to the mandibular canal (see Abb 17 on page 826 here: http://www.sso.ch/doc/doc_download.cfm?uuid=DE6D80B0AA97605D4CBF8225CCF51D52) It is important to note that a retromolar canal may also contribute to a trifid mandibular canal as well (see http://openi.nlm.nih.gov/detailedresult.php?img=3294215_10006_2011_278_Fig4_HTML&req=4)
Thank you Mohamed and Matthew. So, can we say that, if a second canal arises from the main mandibular canal and reaches the alveolar crest at the region of molar teeth, and has an opening (retromolar foramen) on the crest, we call this as retromolar canal? And this is a type of bifid mandibular canal. But, there are other types of bifid mandibular canals, as shown in the articles. Am I correct?
That's correct. Using both terms in the description ( e.g. a retromolar canal, which contributed to the mandibular canal, formed a type of "bifid" mandibular canal) would be a very clear way of describing the variant anatomy
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