Oral Pathologists Sometime Need to View Panoramic X-Ray

From a pathologist’s point of view, what type of information would you like the dentist or oral surgeon to submit in addition to the actual biopsy? In the northern California area, oral pathologists receive about 5000 specimens/year from various dentists and dental specialists. These small pieces of tissue can be of mucosal origin, or they may have their origin from the maxilla or the mandible. When we get lesions of the jaws that have been detected or evaluated from a radiograph, we always like to be able to evaluate radiographic findings as well. This is very helpful to us. In fact, there are a number of conditions for which we cannot make the diagnosis based on the tissue evaluation alone, so it is necessary for us to evaluate the radiograph. Many of these conditions occur in areas that do not show well in the full-mouth x-rays and bitewing x-rays. Therefore, the panoramic evaluation can be a very important one. Now that we are in the digital age, we are able to receive these imag more...