An objective tool for diagnosing and grading lesions of the inferior alveolar nerve was needed because the nerve may be damaged after removal of mandibular third molars, mandibular osteotomies, fractures, tumors, and infections. So this study was performed to establish Korean normal adults' values and to evaluate the normal physiology of blink reflex with stimulation of the mental nerve. The mental nerve blink reflex responses were studied in 30 healthy volunteers, 18 men and 12 women, and its R2 latencies were measured and analysed. The mental nerve blink reflex responses were all evoked and consisted of an ipsilateral late(R2) component and contralateral late component with similar latencies. Eye closure resulted in facilitation of the mental nerve blink reflex in the form of latency shortening. The latencies were longer and the responses were easily habituated by repetitive stimulation, compared with the blink reflexes with supraorbital nerve stimulation. And no right-to-left latency difference was observed.
The mental nerve blink reflex test was easy to perform and offered equally consistent results and valuable objective informations in diagnosing of inferior alveolar nerve injury, so the test enables further clinical application.
