Comment on: An analysis of the first and second mandibular molar roots proximity to the inferior alveolar canal and cortical plates using cone beam computed tomography among Saudi population

To the Editor

I have read with interest the study by Aljarbour et al.1 The reported data are of high importance for dental practitioners who perform dental extractions, root canal treatments, and place dental implants on regular basis to avoid potential damage to the inferior alveolar nerve. However, several points have tracked my attention while reading this paper as follows:

• 1) The title and study discussion focus on Saudi population although the study sample was collected from a single center of King Saud University, Saudi Arabia for a total of 60 participants. It is very hard to generalize this data on the whole population of Saudi Arabia considering the racial and genetic variability between them.

• 2) I would encourage the author to include a paragraph discussing the study limitations and how to improve the study in future publications.

Reply from the Author

We would like to thank Dr. Hani for his interest and comments in our paper. We appreciate your valuable points and we agree about the limited number of patients used in generalizing measure to the Saudi population. However, we acknowledged that within the limitation paragraph in the discussion section quoted: “Further multicenter studies with a larger sample size comprising a greater age and ethnic distribution are needed to confirm the impact of these variables and to overcome our research limitations.” Our recommendations are suggested to overcome such limitations.

Fahd Aljarbou

Department of Restorative Dental Sciences King Saud University Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia