The role of radiographic imaging in the assessment of periapical lesions

INTRODUCTION. Radiographic imaging is an essential component in the management of destructive forms of periodontitis. It is used for diagnostic purposes, for assessing the quality of treatment after root canal obturation, and for long-term follow-up evaluation of treatment outcomes. AIM. To perform a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of different radiographic diagnostic methods in chronic destructive periodontitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS. To determine diagnostic informativeness, radiographic examinations of 413 patients with destructive forms of periodontitis (454 teeth) were analyzed. Intraoral dental radiography using a 5D2 unit was performed in 122 patients (134 teeth), radiovisiography with SOPIX 2 (Acteon Group, France) in 199 patients (228 teeth), and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) using Vatech (Model: ECT-12, Korea) in 88 patients (92 teeth). RESULTS. The overall detection rate of periapical lesions using radiovisiography and CBCT was 37.28% and 21.73%, respectively. With the use of the intraoral dental X-ray unit, only 5.97% of periapical pathology was detected, indicating the low effectiveness of this diagnostic method, especially in severe cases. CONCLUSIONS. CBCT is effective in detecting periapical lesions that cannot be identified by radiovisiography, particularly in the maxillary region.