Objective: To evaluate the visibility of the superior and inferior borders of mandibular canal using panoramic radiography (PR) and cross-sectional computed tomography (CT) images.
Study design: Digital panoramic images and cross-sectional CT images of 100 patients were evaluated. The mandibular canal was divided into 4 areas of equal width (1-4), from anterior to posterior. The visibility of the superior and inferior borders was assessed using a 5-point visibility scoring system, with lower scores for worse visibility.
Results: For both modalities, the superior border showed significantly lower score than the inferior border in all areas. For the superior border, areas 1, 2, and 3 all showed significantly lower scores than area 4 for PR, whereas only area 1 showed a lower score than area 4 for CT.
Conclusions: The visibility of the superior border was very poor on panoramic images. The use of cross-sectional CT images remarkably improved this poor visualization.
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