Lingual mandibular bony defects: CT in the buccolingual plane.
OBJECTIVE
Our goal was to record the appearance of lingular mandibular bony defects (LMBD) on CT imaging of the mandible in the buccolingual plane.


METHODS
During the CT evaluation of patients planning to undergo dental implant surgery, five cases of LMBD were found. Axial 1.2 x 1.00 mm overlapping CT sections of the mandible and the maxilla were obtained. Then with use of specific software (DentaCT; Elscint), panoramic and cross-sectional (buccolingual) images of the mandible and maxilla were reformatted.


RESULTS
Five cases of posterior LMBD were identified; one patient had both a posterior as well as the much rarer anterior LMBD. All cases were incidental findings and all were asymptomatic. CT features of LMBD were displayed in axial, panoramic, and buccolingual planes. The characteristic opening of the bony defect in the lingual aspect of the mandible was clearly displayed on the axial as well as the buccolingual images; however, this key feature was not manifest on the panoramic images of the mandible.


CONCLUSIONS
CT features of LMBD in the buccolingual plane are added to the known radiologic description of this entity.
Slasky
B S
BS
Department of Radiology, Hadassah University Hospital, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
Bar-Ziv
J
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015921:Dental Implants; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008334:Mandible / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008336:Mandibular Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
D015921:Dental Implants