Dental and Oral Health

The oral and maxillofacial diagnosticians are responsible for the detection, description, differentiation and diagnosis of

salivary gland disorders. The algorithm of salivary gland imaging depends on the stage of the clinical disease. For the sake

of ease of description, the salivary gland disorders can be broadly divided in to inflammatory, reactive and space-occupying

masses. Diagnostic imaging of salivary gland disease may be useful in distinguishing diffuse involvement from focal suppurative

involvement, differentiate and identify neoplastic processes from inflammatory disease, delineate ductal morphology, identify

sialoliths, identify the effect of salivary gland pathology on adjacent structures, aid in the selection of biopsy sites, etc. This

paper will review the different imaging modalities and the past and current protocol of salivary gland imaging, if there is any

difference, for different salivary gland pathologies for different clinical situations.