back to contents
The@maxillary bone and its adjacent structures on panoramic tomography
1: Clinical and radiographical analysis of carcinomas in maxillary sinuses and upper pharynges
Hitoshi Nakayama
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Niigata University School of Dentistry
(Chief: Prof. Juske Ito)
Abstract
The presence of malignant lesion in the maxillary bone and adjacent structures is recently easily diagnosed in the general or university hospitals using X-ray CT or MR imaging. However, patients with such lesions present usually to medical or occasionally to dental offices for the first imaging modality. The purpose of this paper is to define the most valuable and handiest method of evaluating PTs of patients in dental offices. The clinical course and physical findings of 39 patients with carcinoma in the maxillary sinus and 25 patients with carcinoma in the upper pharynx were assessed and PTs of these patients were analyzed to find the most important radiographic signs to find or suspect malignant lesions. It was found that in certain number of patients it was very difficult for dentists to diagnose the presence of malignant lesions with PTs. Even in these cases the present study revealed that correct diagnosis could be established by checking the certain structures depicted in routine PTsDThese structures are the floor and posterior border of the maxillary sinus, hard palate, zygomatic process of the maxillary bone, and pterygoid process of the sphenoid bone. It is concluded that the training of dentists for checking these structures routinely, comparing both sides to find a slight change, and keeping always in mind the possibility of malignant lesions is the most important and useful method to find malignant lesions at an earlier stage.