The purpose of this study was to compare the sensitivity for detecting foreign bodies among conventional plain radiography, CT and ultrasonography in in vitro models. Seven different materials were selected as foreign bodies with dimensions of approximately 1 x 1 x 0.1 cm. These materials were metal, glass, wood, stone, acrylic, graphite and Bakelite. These foreign bodies were placed into a sheep's head between the corpus mandible and muscle, in the tongue and in the maxillary sinus. Conventional plain radiography, CT and ultrasonography imaging methods were compared to investigate their sensitivity for detecting these foreign bodies. Metal, glass and stone can be detected with all the visualization techniques used in the study in all of the zones. In contrast to this, foreign bodies with low radiopacity, which could be detected in air with CT, became less visible or almost invisible in muscle tissue and between bone and muscle tissue. The performance of ultrasonography for visualizing foreign bodies with low radiopacity is relatively better than CT. Ultrasonography detects and localizes superficial foreign bodies with low radiopacity in the tissues of the body more effectively than CT and conventional plain radiography. However, CT is a more effective technique for visualization of foreign bodies in air than ultrasound and conventional plain radiography.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and characteristics of pneumatized articular eminence (PAT) by cone beam CT (CBCT) and to present a review of the PAT literature. A retrospective study was performed using sagittal and coronal CBCT images of 514 patients in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Ataturk University, Turkey. Age and gender were recorded for all patients and, for the cases of PAT, laterality and types were also recorded. The χ(2) test was used. Of the 514 patients, 41 (8.0%) had PAT, of whom 25 were female (61.0%) and 16 were male (39.0%). This difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The age range of the patients with PAT was 15-62 years (mean 30.6 ± 11.4). Of the 41 patients, 31 (75.6%) had unilateral and 10 (24.4%) had bilateral PAT. 17 (41.5%) PATs were unilocular and 24 (58.5%) were multilocular. It is possible that PAT is a more frequent condition than is commonly perceived. In differential diagnosis of suspected cases or in cases for which surgical treatment is planned, panoramic radiographs should be supplemented with CBCT.

Objective: This study aims to classify tongue lesion types using tongue images utilizing Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNNs). Methods: A dataset consisting of five classes, four tongue lesion classes (coated, geographical, fissured tongue, and median rhomboid glossitis), and one healthy/normal tongue class, was constructed using tongue images of 623 patients who were admitted to our clinic. Classification performance was evaluated on VGG19, ResNet50, ResNet101, and GoogLeNet networks using fusion based majority voting (FBMV) approach for the first time in the literature. Results: In the binary classification problem (normal vs. tongue lesion), the highest classification accuracy performance of 93,53% was achieved utilizing ResNet101, and this rate was increased to 95,15% with the application of the FBMV approach. In the five-class classification problem of tongue lesion types, the VGG19 network yielded the best accuracy rate of 83.93%, and the fusion approach improved this rate to 88.76%. Conclusion: The obtained test results showed that tongue lesions could be identified with a high accuracy by applying DCNNs. Further improvement of these results has the potential for the use of the proposed method in clinic applications.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between median rhomboid glossitis (MRG) and Candida and bacteria species, prevalence and possible association with age, gender, smoking, denture wearing, and diabetes mellitus. Methods: Tongue examinations were performed on 4244 consecutive patients. Of all the examined patients, 30 diagnosed with MRG were selected as the study group and another 30 patients were selected as the control group, and these 2 groups were compared in terms of age and gender. Tongue cultures from these 60 patients were subjected to bacterial and mycological examinations. Results: MRG frequency was detected to be 0.7%. In mycological examination, Candida species were determined in 90.0% of the MRG patients and in 46.6% of the control group. This difference was statistically significant. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that diabetes mellitus and 20–39 years of age were significantly related to MRG. However, the association between MRG, gender, smoking, and 40–69 years of age was not statistically significant. Conclusions: It was determined that although there was a significant association between MRG, Candida and diabetes mellitus, the possible risk factors such as gender, smoking, and denture wearing for oral candidiasis were invalid for MRG. (Eur J Dent 2011;5:367-372)

The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of Stafne bone defect (SBD) and to describe the clinical and radiological characteristics of detected cases. A retrospective study was performed using panoramic radiographs from 34 221 patients undergoing dental treatment in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology at Erciyes University and Ataturk University, Turkey. After finding an image compatible with SBD in the radiographs, multislice CT (MSCT) on seven patients and cone beam CT (CBCT) on six patients were performed to confirm the diagnosis. Of the 34 221 patients, 29 (0.08 %) had SBDs, of whom 4 were female (13.8%) and 25 were male (86.2 %). The age range of patients with SBD was 18-77 years (mean age 49.6 years). SBD was found in the lingual molar region in 28 patients and in the lingual canine-premolar region of the mandible in 1 patient. The contour of the concavities on CT images (MSCT and CBCT) was detected. The MSCT revealed glandular tissue within the defects. According to our results, SBD is an uncommon anomaly. Examination of MSCT images supports the presence of aberrant submandibular glands within these mandibular defects, suggesting that pressure from submandibular gland tissue had caused the SBD, as generally thought. Both CBCT and MSCT can provide adequate support for the detection of SBDs. The CBCT could be suggested as the most suitable non-invasive diagnostic modality for this bony configuration of the mandible since it provides a lower radiation exposure dose than MSCT.