Title

Digital panoramic radiography versus CBCT for impacted mandibular third-molar pathology detection

Authors

Satish Bhosale¹, Gargi Nimbulkar²,*, Manoj M. Pawar², Priyadarshini Kerur³, Deeptanshu Daga⁴ & Apoorva Bhargava Daga⁵

Affiliation

¹Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology & Oral Microbiology, Bharati Vidyapeeth Dental College & Hospital, Sangli, Maharashtra, India; ²Department of Dentistry, Government Medical College & Hospital, Miraj, District Sangli, Maharashtra, India; ³Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, R. R. Dental College & Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India; ⁴Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Pacific Dental College & Hospital, Debari, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India; ⁵Department of Dentistry, Pacific Institute of Medical Sciences, Ambua Road, Village Umarda, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Satish Bhosale - E-mail: drsatish.bhosale@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9503300632
Gargi Nimbulkar - E-mail: garginimbulkar@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9421703449
Manoj M. Pawar - E-mail: drmanojmpawar@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9511728624
Priyadarshini Kerur - E-mail: doc.kpriya05@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9818723394
Deeptanshu Daga - E-mail: deeptanshu2007@yahoo.co.in; Phone: +91 7742419499
Apoorva Bhargava Daga - E-mail: doc.apoorva.bhargava@gmail.com; Phone: +91 7597815853

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received September 1, 2026; Revised September 30, 2026; Accepted September 30, 2026, Published September 30, 2026

Abstract

Impacted mandibular third molars can produce occult disease that is difficult to characterize on panoramic images alone. Therefore, it is of interest to compare the digital panoramic radiography with limited-field CBCT in 146 impacted third molars from 112 patients. CBCT detected pathology in 56.8% of teeth versus 45.9% on panoramic imaging (McNemar p = 0.004). Panoramic radiography showed 73.5% sensitivity, 90.5% specificity and 80.8% accuracy for any pathology, with lowest sensitivity for external root resorption. Thus, panoramic imaging remains suitable first-line, while selective CBCT adds clinically important three-dimensional information when findings are equivocal or high-risk.

Keywords

Impacted mandibular third molar, digital panoramic radiography, cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), external root resorption, distal caries, periodontal bone loss

Citation

Bhosale et al. Bioinformation 22(9): 5631-5636 (2026)

Edited by

Ashwini Dhopte

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.