Orofacial symptoms suggestive of malignant lesions and the role of imaging: literature review and case presentation.

Among the patients seeking dental treatment, some may present with symptoms that cannot be resolved by dental treatment alone. Patients with orofacial symptoms associated with malignant diseases, which require medical treatment, often visit dental clinics for their initial consultation. Delays in making a definitive diagnosis worsen the patient's prognosis. Therefore, dental clinicians should also be aware of the signs and symptoms associated with malignant diseases. The chief complaints of these patients include numb chin syndrome (NCS), painless swelling of the palate and neck, trismus and temporomandibular disorders, and an enlarged tongue. This article aimed to review these orofacial symptoms and related diseases and describe representative cases of these diseases to obtain a definitive diagnosis via imaging. Panoramic radiograph is widely used in general dentistry, and this article reaffirmed the importance of panoramic radiograph anatomical landmarks in diagnosing the cases presented in this paper.