Clinical and Radiographic Evaluation Of each Variant Of Periapical Pathology:A Random Population Study.

Objectives To find out the accurate prevalence of periapical pathology and to see the significance of the clinical signs in diagnosing each variant of periapical pathology. Method-A study of 300 patients were chosen consecutively who visited the department of oral radiology for intra oral periapical radiographs. The clinical data of all the variants of periapical pathology were registered in a specific clinical form followed by intra oral periapical radiographs of the same site. Results ?A total of 235 radiographs were diagnosed with periapical pathology. Periapical rarefying osteitis was present in almost every second radiograph (32.13%)and less common were periapical cysts (3.16% ).No sex predilection was found in distribution of periapical pathology (p=0.768) and majority of the patients (26.39 %) belonged to the 25 to 36 years age group (p=0.008).Mandibular molars (39.61%) were most common and mandibular canines (0.82%) were least common sites to be involved with periapical pathology.(p=0.002). Overall significance of the clinical signs in diagnosing each variant of periapical pathology was observed (p=0.006) Conclusion- Our results suggested high prevalence rate of periapical pathology. This study also elaborates all the clinical signs of periapical pathology and their statistical significance in diagnosing each variant of periapical pathology.