Anatomic and radiographic evaluation of temporomandibular joint in panoramic and transcranial radiographs, Accurad-200 and Updegrave

Abstract

The present work has as pur- pose to identify anatomic portions of the Temporomandibular Joint, for the observation of the radiogra- phic image of these areas in three techniques: Panoramic, Transcra- nial Projection with the Accurad 200 cephalostat – corrected and Transcranial Projection with the head positioner developed by Up- degrave. For that, a dry skull was used, where the following areas were identified with metallic ma- rkers: the lateral pole, the medial pole, the central area and the ou- tline of the condilar region strictly articular in the mandibular condy- le and lateral, central and medial areas in the mandibular fossa. The outline of the fossa was also delimited with a metallic wire. Later this was completely filled up with a lead sheet. Following the image obtention, it was obser- ved that the lateral region of both articular structures, correspond to the region in which the least image overlap occurs, principally when the correction of the horizontal angle is accomplished for the ra- diation beam incidence. Key words: radiographic ana- tomy, temporomandibular joint, transcranial projection, panoramic radiograph.