Abstract
Radiographic diagnosis of edentulous jaws in addition to ocular inspection and palpation can allow detection of the presence of impacted tooth or residual root which may constitute the cause for an offensive feeling appering after treatment. This has encouraged a large number of studies in foreign countries for the evaluation of the effectiveness of panoramic radiograpy in the edentulous patients. In Japan, however, this line of study does not seem to have been satisfactorily undertaken. This study was designed to investigate the detectability of dental abnormalities such as tooth impaction by panoramic radiographic diagnosis at the site of the defect in 600 partially and jully edentulous patients.
Abnormalities were detected in 56 (9.3%) of the 600 patients. The number of abnormalities totaled 87. The most frequent was residual root (59.8%). It was followed by impacted teeth (24.1%). The presence of foreign matter and radiopacity amounted to 8% each. In age distribution, patients in their sixties were predominant (32.1%), followed by those in their fifties (28.6%) and seventies (16.1%). Patients above 50 years of age amounted to 80.4% of the total number of patients. The number of patients and the frequency of abnormalities were proportional in the group of bimaxillary edentulous patients. In the group of unimaxillary edentulous patients, the frequency of abnormalities was higher in spite of the low ratio of patients in this group to the total number of patients. There was no differnce in the incidence of abnormalities between the upper and lower jaws. Residual roots were frequently present in the upper jaw. Impacted teeth were frequent at the region of the lower third molar.
Abnormalities in edentulous jaws could be detected by panoramic radiography, though the incidence was not demonstrably high. The results suggest that panoramic radiographic diagnosis is useful for the prevention of offensive signs that may appear after insertion of dentures.
