The frequency and nature of incidental findings in cone-beam computed tomographic scans of the head and neck region

Incidence and frequency of nondental incidental findings on cone-beam computed tomography

“…The results of this study demonstrate that general practitioners should be aware of the fact that incidental findings in the head and neck region in CBCT are frequent. A review from Edwards et al (2013) confirmed this statement. By evaluating the prevalence of incidental findings in CBCT datasets, the knowledge of dentists regarding early diagnostic investigations can be improved.…”

“…Reliable data from the percentage of the findings in the literature are rare. We used 999 patients, whereas other studies used less; so, there is a variation of sample sizes in the literature (Edwards et al, 2013). A bigger sample size represents better information about the whole population.…”

“…This study included MT greater than 3 mm as well as sinus cysts, because these findings are the most common (Edwards et al, 2013). Other studies that utilised CBCT to analyse the same type of findings reported a range of 10.7%e85.8% (Edwards et al, 2013;Lana et al, 2012), thereby demonstrating the large variation in the reported ranges for these findings. One reason for this variation may be the different definition of MT.…”

“…In the literature, the prevalence of CSL ranges from a low value of 3.1% to a high value of 63.3% (Edwards et al, 2013;Mahdian et al, 2014). This high value may result from the high mean age in at least one of these studies (Mahdian et al, 2014).…”

“…In the literature, the prevalence of sialoliths in CBCT ranges from 0.4% to 1% without regard to information about the differentiation of sialoliths in the submandibular gland or the parotid gland (Allareddy et al, 2012;Edwards et al, 2013). Sialoliths occur more often in females as an incidental finding in CBCT (Allareddy et al, 2012), although the condition itself appears to be more common overall in males (Ledesma-Montes et al, 2007).…”