Today, for patients of any age, a "panoramic" radiograph that allows high diagnostic reliability with minimum radiation exposure must be acknowledged as the standard of care. The new, more medically and legally "responsible" strategy for examination of patients is closely intertwined with a basic principle of patient care. Panoramic radiograph is rapidly becoming a meaningful and normal component of dental practice-oriented "prevention".


This Atlas presents the proper use of optimum radiographic exposure and contemporary techniques for today's dental office. Emphasis is placed on the reliable recognition of normal structures in the projected space and clear differentiation of normal features from pathological radiographic signs. These major topics of fundamental importance for correct interpretation are treated more extensively. The section on diagnosis deals in depth with the typical radiographic manifestations of frequently occurring pathological processes. Inherent in that section of the book is the basic understanding that the radiopathologic manifestation of one and the same lesion may vary considerably depending on the patient's age and sex, on the phase of development of the lesion at the time of documentation, on the localization within different surrounding structures, and according to actual histologic features of the lesion.