Comparison of roots of maxillary molar teeth observed in the maxillary sinus on panoramic radiographs with cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and effect of periapical pathologies in maxillary posterior teeth on mucosal thickening in maxillary sinuses

The aim of our study is to evaluate the relationship of the roots of the maxillary molar teeth with the maxillary sinuses in panoramic radiographs and compare them with Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) and also to investigate the effect of periapical pathologies in the maxillary posterior teeth on mucosal thickening in the maxillary sinuses. In our study, the images of patients who were previously examined in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology and whose CBCT images including the maxillary region were taken with Cone Beam Computed Tomography were scanned retrospectively. 969 maxillary 1st and 2nd molar teeth from 298 patients between the ages of 20-50, who doesnt have any systemic disease, did not have a previous sinus lift operation in the maxillary sinuses and did not have any implant surgery in the maxillary posterior regions, were included in the study. According to the results, statistical data were analyzed with IBM SPSS V23, and Fisher-Freeman-Halton test and Pearson Chi Square test were used to compare categorical data. The suitability of the data for normal distribution was examined with Kolmogorov Smirnov and Shapiro Wilk tests. Kruskal Wallis H test was used to compare data that did not comply with normal distribution according to groups of three or more. Multiple comparisons were also examined with the Bonferroni Corrected Z test. Kappa test was used to examine the agreement between the results. As a result, the roots of the maxillary molar teeth, which we observed in the maxillary sinus in panoramic radiographs, were also detected in the maxillary sinus in CBCT at a rate of 72.1%. No lesions were observed in the periapical region in 89% of the teeth, and mucosal thickening (>2 mm) was detected in 26.6% of them. Additionally, when there was mucosal thickening (>2 mm), the most common (39.5%) thickening of 2-5 mm was detected. Periapical lesions were observed in 11% of the teeth, and mucosal thickening (>2 mm) was observed in 66.3% of them. Mucosal thickening of 2-5 mm was most frequently detected in teeth with periapical lesions (40.1%). A statistically significant correlation was found between the presence of periapical lesion and the degree of mucosal thickening (p <0.001).