Abstract
Paraesthesia of the lower lip during orthodontic treatment is rare. We present a case of unilateral temporary mental paraesthesia elicited by fixed orthodontic appliance therapy. The cause for the paraesthesia was thought to be close contact between the inferior dental nerve and the mandibular tooth roots. A cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scan revealed intimate contact between the roots of the lower left second molar and the inferior alveolar canal. The use of imaging techniques to assess the relationship between the inferior dental nerve and tooth roots is discussed. Although anatomical relationships between nerves and tooth roots can be diagnosed using a variety of imaging techniques, CBCT is suggested as the imaging modality of choice as high-resolution images are produced at a relatively low dose to the patient.
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Louisa Sham, Anant Bakshi, Hashmat Popat and Nicholas Drage declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. Informed consent was obtained from the patient to be included in this case report.
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Sham, L., Bakshi, A., Popat, H. et al. Orthodontic induced inferior alveolar nerve paraesthesia: diagnosis using cone beam computed tomography. Oral Radiol 30, 255–258 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11282-014-0174-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11282-014-0174-4