<img src="http://blog.drnemeth.com/Portals/35943/images/dental mri.jpeg” border=”0″ alt=”dental mri” class=”alignRight” style=”float: right;” />Research groups in Germany are leading the way with research that suggests potential for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a hard and soft tissue diagnostic tool in dentistry. Several studies have been done to substantiate this claim and the conclusions are hard to ignore.
The Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery meeting in Berlin in June hosted two presentations focusing on the use of MRI for diagnosing acute gum disease and cavities as well. And a current study published in European Radiology compared MRI’s ability to visualize hard and soft tissues of the mouth with that of Cone Beam CT Scans.
“The application of ultrashort echo-time MRI appears feasible for identification of caries lesions with high sensitivity,” wrote study authors. “In direct comparison to x-ray techniques, MRI may be able to identify the real extent of the lesions instead of showing the areas with substantial breakdown of the local mineral structures only.” Further evaluation is needed to determine whether limited spatial resolution and longer acquisition times will outweigh the benefits provided by the MRI for diagnosing cavities.
The same team studied the use of MRI for assessing acute periodontitis in a similar study. “While bone resorption can nicely be assessed by x-ray-based imaging methods such as conventional orthopantomography or volume tomography, acute and chronic inflammation can hardly be distinguished due to the limited soft-tissue contrast in x-rays,” the researchers wrote.“dental diagnostic imaging should not be viewed as being only x-ray,” said Allan Farman, BDS, MBA, PhD, DSc.
“This experimental study shows the diagnostic feasibility of MRI in visualization of teeth and periodontal anatomy,” the study authors wrote. “Detection of periodontal structures was significantly better with MRI than with MDCT or CBCT.”
Further trials are needed to fully evaluate the potential benefit of MRI in a clinical setting, they added.
“dental diagnostic imaging should not be viewed as being only x-ray,” Dr. Farman said. “MRI and ultrasound are other technologies showing much promise, and without ionizing radiation.”
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