Value of pre-operative radiographic examination of edentulous patients prior to denture construction: the risk versus the benefit

Abstract

Many investigators recommended a routine radiographic examination for the edentulous cases before denture treatment. Panoramic radiographs obtained from inactive files of 212 patients -of both sexes- who required treatment in the college of dentistry KSU. The radiographs were me¬ticulously examined. The plan of this study was to examine panoramic radiographs of edentulous patients with emphasis on the incidence of five entities ; root fragments, impacted teeth, radio¬lucencies, radiopacities, and foreign bodies. Of the 212 panoramic radiographs examined, 180 were free of positive findings, and 32 (J 5.1 %) have shown positive findings ,eighteen patients (8.5%) had one or more remaining root fragments, and this entity was statistically significant from the other en¬tities. Three patients (1.4%) demonstrated impacted teeth. Five patients (2.4%) demonstrated radio¬pacities, two patients (1.9%) demonstrated radiolucencies. The radiographs of four patients (1.9%) demonstrated foreign bodies. The results of this study have proved the necessity of performing rou¬tine radiographic examination of the jaws for all edentulous patients before constructing complete dentures. It also indicates the need for a better extraction technique together with the use of radio¬graphs before and after extraction.