Effect of Distortion Panoramic Radiograph on Alveolar Bone Height

Tomography rarely found in Indonesia and still do not recognized the digital tomography examination advantages. In Maxillary dental implant placement, should taking care the location of maxillary sinus to avoid perforation of the sinus floor. Objectives: The aim of this research is to determine the distortion in the panoramic radiograph by measuring the alveolar bone height in edentulous posterior regions of the maxillary sinus floor. Methods: Ten dry skulls were marked with a radiopaque marker on the edentulous alveolar ridge at the 1.7,1.6,1.5,2.5,2.6 and 2.7 regions. On those marked regions, the alveolar bone height were measured on the panoramic radiograph and on the digital tomography. The skull were drilled to create a perforation to the maxillary sinus and the measurement were directly performed with depth gauge. Data obtained was done by ANOVA and paired “t” test. Results: The results showed, in panoramic radiograph, digital tomography and the measurements on the dry skulls show there is no significantly different in three measurement performed. However a significant different was found respectively between the measurement of alveolar bone height at panoramic radiograph compared with measurements on the dry skulls and the results on the digital tomography. Conclusions: It can be concluded that the measurements of alveolar bone height on the maxillary sinus floor using panoramic radiograph have distortions significantly in comparison to the measurements on the dry skulls and digital tomography. Hence, it is not advisable to make direct measurement at the maxillary sinus floor using panoramic radiograph.