Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Infection, Cysts, Cancer, Diagnostic procedure, MR, CT, Cone beam CT, Head and neck, Bones
Authors:
J. de Grazia1, C. A. Robles2, G. A. Miranda1, A. Salas2, R. Núñez Flores2, C. Matus Yañez2, P. Orellana2, A. Pontoni2, F. LAHSEN2; 1Santiago, RM/CL, 2Santiago/CL
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-0872
Background
Radiologists who report head and neck exams often face mandibular / maxillary lesions,
either as the main finding of the examination or as an incidental finding.
Many of these lesions are of dental origin,
and their nature is varied: cysts of the odontogenic apparatus,
neoplasms (benign or malignant),
among others.
The imaging findings of many of these diseases may be indistinguishable,
despite considerable differences in the underlying pathological process,
reason why the histological study most of times is required to confirm the diagnosis.
In this scenario,
the role of the radiologist is to narrow the differential diagnosis,
characterizing the extent and complexity of the lesion.
The main imaging studies used to characterize the details of an odontogenic lesion are multidetector computed tomography (MDCT),
cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Differences between MDCT and CBCT,
emphasizing their respective advantages,
are summarized in Fig. 1.
The main advantages of MRI are its lack of ionizing radiation and its high contrast resolution.
On this educational exhibit we propose 4 basic questions that should be answered by the radiologist in order to address the diagnosis of odontogenic lesions.
After that,
the radiological characteristics of the main cystic and tumoral odontogenic lesions are reviewed,
emphasizing the answer of the 4 basic questions.
Non-odontogenic mandibular / maxillary lesions are not included in this review.