Ultrasonography in the diagnosis of bone lesions of the jaws: a systematic review.

The diagnostic use of ultrasonography in dentistry and maxillofacial surgery has previously been described in the literature. Considering that ultrasonography may be useful for the diagnosis of bone lesions of the jaws, a systematic review was carried out to examine the evidence. This review determined that ultrasonography has been used effectively for the diagnosis of infective and/or inflammatory lesions, cysts, nonodontogenic tumors, odontogenic tumors, and arteriovenous malformations and for the differential diagnosis of lesions of endodontic origin, compared with the gold standard of histologic analysis. Ultrasonography may be a viable adjunct to other special tests for the diagnosis of intraosseous lesions of the jaws, as it is noninvasive and does not involve ionizing radiation exposure of the patient.