Department of Oral Radiology, Prince Philip Dental Hospital, The University of Hong Kong, Saiyingpun, Hong Kong.
Clin Oral Implants Res. 2012 Feb;23(2):253-256. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0501.2011.02188.x. Epub 2011 Apr 13.
Conebeam computed tomography (CBCT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been used to identify the mandibular nerve but a comparison of the reliabilities of the two imaging modalities has not been performed. It was hypothesized that the reliabilities were not different between the two.
Twelve dental postgraduates in five disciplines were recruited to assess two sets of reformatted oblique images (CBCT and MRI) of 11 patients who were scanned before wisdom teeth extraction. The variance of the identified locations of mandibular nerve, the mental foramen and the mandibular foramen between two sets of images of each patient was compared. Each set of images was rated by assessors to reveal the satisfaction in determining the structures.
It was found that by using MRI images, significantly lesser variances and significantly higher satisfactory scores were given by the assessors than by using CBCT images in the identification of the structures.
We concluded that MRI is a promising imaging modality that can be used to identify the mandibular nerve when it cannot be found in CBCT images.
锥形束 CT（CBCT）和磁共振成像（MRI）已被用于识别下颌神经，但尚未对两种成像方式的可靠性进行比较。假设这两种成像方式的可靠性没有差异。
招募了来自五个学科的 12 名牙科研究生，以评估 11 名在智齿拔除前接受扫描的患者的两组斜位图像（CBCT 和 MRI）。比较了每位患者的两组图像中下颌神经、颏孔和下颌孔的识别位置的方差。评估者对每一组图像进行评分，以揭示确定结构的满意度。
结果发现，与 CBCT 图像相比，使用 MRI 图像评估者在确定结构时给出的差异更小，评分更高。
我们得出结论，MRI 是一种很有前途的成像方式，可以在 CBCT 图像中无法找到下颌神经时用于识别下颌神经。
