Diagnostic value of ultrasonography in maxillofacial practice: A narrative review

Ultrasonography or sonography is a rapidly evolving imaging technology, which uses high-frequency sound waves that are transmitted into the body and echoes from the tissue interfaces are detected and displayed on a monitor. In recent years, its application in maxillofacial practice has gained importance as a diagnostic tool. Therefore, the aim of this manuscript is to review the literature for narrative assessment of the diagnostic value of ultrasound in maxillofacial practice and to compare the significance of ultrasound to other diagnostic modalities. The PubMed CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Springerlink and Cochrane library databases were searched using the MeSH terms subject headings: Ultrasonography, maxillofacial practice, maxillofacial sonography, echogenicity, physics of ultrasonography, diagnostic ultrasonography, greyscale, Doppler and maxillofacial imaging. The search was restricted to free-full text and articles written in the English language published from 1989 to 2018. A total number of 36 articles retrieved were reviewed by the authors restricted to review paper, original research and case report which described the diagnostic modality of US in maxillofacial practice. US have become one of the valuable diagnostic imaging modalities in maxillofacial practice owing to its affordability, availability and safety to tissues as it employs non-ionising radiation.