Evaluation of the Ability of Panoramic Radiography in the Determining the Morphology and Position of third Molar Roots

Most third molars eventually need to be extracted, and this tooth has the most varied and unpredictable root position of all teeth. Therefore, considering the importance of accurate diagnosis of the roots of molar teeth before surgery to reduce its surgical complications, the aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of panoramic radiography to diagnose the situation of roots of third molars. the relationship of the roots to each other and the angle of the crown to the root in panoramic and clinical radiographs, respectively, using Romexis viewer and digimizer software were investigated.

In this cross-sectional-analytical study, 104 third molars of 93 patients referred for wisdom tooth extraction were examined clinically for the number of roots, the relationship of roots to each other and the angle of the crown to the root in panoramic radiography using Romexis Viewer  software and clinically after providing photograph and measuring the angle using digimizer software.

In evaluating the roots of third molars, the accuracy of panoramic radiographic interpretation regarding the number of roots was 63.27% and in the presence or absence of root, adhesion was 55.89%. In addition, Pearson correlation analysis showed that there was a significant relationship between the reported angle in radiographic interpretation and the actual angle (r = 0.318 and P value = 0.001).

Therefore, panoramic radiography is a valuable guide for third molar surgery. It is only necessary to consider its high error rate in terms of morphological details such as the number of roots and their relationship to each other.