Prevalence of Soft Tissue Calcification in Panoramic Radiographs in Northern of Iran

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Soft tissue calcification is a relatively common issue in panoramic radiography. Some of these calcifications may have non-specific clinical symptoms as feeling of foreign body, dysphagia, otalgia and non-reflective cough. Therefore, for correct diagnosis and avoiding incorrect and excess treatments it’s necessary to have information about prevalence of these calcifications in regional populations. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of soft tissue calcification in panoramic radiographs in a selected population in northern Iran. METHODS: In this cross sectional study, panoramic radiographs of 5000 patients referring to Oral & Maxillofacial radiology department of Babol dental school from 2014 to 2017 were examined. Radiographs were evaluated for the presence of any calcification, and their prevalence and their relationship with age were evaluated in two groups of under and over 40 years of age and gender. FINDING: The prevalence of the observed soft tissue calcifications including calcification of stylohyoid ligands was 484 cases (9.7%), tonsilolith 52 cases (1%), calcification of lymph nodes 9 cases (0.2%), calcification of carotid artery 22 cases (0.4%) and thyroid cartilage calcification was 17 cases (0.3%). No cases of rhinolith, antrolith, sialolith and phlebolitis were found. The amount of tonsilolith (34 to 18 cases) and lymph node calcification (7 versus 2 cases) were significantly higher in men. (p=0.002 and p =0.048). Also, the prevalence of calcification of stylohyoid ligament (290 versus 194 cases) (p=0.001), tonsilolith (13% vs. 39 cases) (p=0.001), calcification of carotid artery (18 versus 4) (p=0.001), and thyroid (14 versus 3) (p=0.003) were significantly relevant with age. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that soft tissue calcifications are prevalent and the most common is stylohyoid ligament calcification.