Table 7.

Summary of diagnostic accuracy and the characteristics of different imaging techniques

Technique	Sensitivity/Specificitya	Advantage	Disadvantage
Panoramic	55%/92%	Useful for revealing periapical or periodontal infections that may be misinterpreted by other modalities26	Low sensibility
		Low patient radiation dose
CT	83%/100%	High sensibility and specificity	Slice thickness may affect the sensibility
MRI	94%/100%	High sensibility and specificity	In windows at T1 and T2, improved with gadolinium, this method overestimates the extent of the tumour if there is adjacent oedema27
			Artefacts due to movements or inflammatory periodontal conditions, osteoradionecrosis and partial volume effect29
Cone beam CT	91%/100%	High sensibility and specificity	Underestimates the extent of mandibular invasion28
		Patient position prevents collapse of soft tissue.	Requires four times more radiation than panoramic radiography28
		Requires less radiation than for multislice CT28
Positron emission tomography/CT	53%/97%	Slightly superior diagnostic accuracy to CT	Low specificity
		Identifies hypermetabolic and non-hypermetabolic lesions	Results altered by inflammatory processes or by an increased haematopoiesis29

^aOnly maximum values of sensitivity and specificity are shown.