2019 Volume 39 Issue 1-2 Pages 15-20
Osteoporosis patients are estimated to amount to 12 million in our country. The osteoporosis screening rate, however, remains low at 5％; hence, many of them are latent patients. As such, it is proposed to provide opportunistic screening of osteoporosis for the patients at the dental clinic using dental panorama radiographs (DPR). Using computer-aided diagnostic system with application of image analyzing software on DPR, we examined mandibular cortical index and mandibular cortical width, and then graded the osteoporosis risk into 3 phases. Among the subjects—176 patients aged 45 and older (average age 62.18 years old) who agreed to the osteoporosis risk evaluation program, 18 patients were at high risk while 68 at moderately high risk and 90 at low risk. It was demonstrated that among patients aged 50 and older the rate of patients at higher risks increased directly with aging. We advised high risk patients to visit the osteoporosis specialist, and 2 out of 18 followed our advice within 3 months.
