A comparative study of the radiological diagnosis of postoperative maxillary cyst

Objectives: To compare the diagnostic accuracy for the postoperative maxill ary cyst (POMC) of panoramic in combination with Waters' radiography with c omputed tomography (CT) and of oral and maxillofacial radiologists with non -specialists. Study design: Nineteen cases of POMC and 19 of postoperative changes were a ssessed using panoramic in combination with Waters' radiographs and CT by f ive oral and maxillofacial radiologists and five non-specialists on a five- point scale, The areas under the ROC curves were analysed using the Wilcoxo n rank sum test to determine any differences in diagnostic accuracy between the two methods and between the two groups. Results: The diagnostic accuracy of CT was higher than that of combined pan oramic and Waters' radiographs for the oral and maxillofacial radiologists (P < 0,05), but not for the nonspecialists (P > 0,05), The diagnostic accur acy of the oral and maxillofacial radiologists for each method was higher t han that of the non-specialists group (P < 0.05). Conclusions: CT improves the evaluation of POMC. Radiological training and experience leads to more accurate diagnoses.