[Panoramic dental studies in systematic screening: useful or superfluous?]

In the framework of a programme of systematic screening, a study of dental health of the population was completed on 791 members of the personnel of a service company together with their spouses. This multicenter study was completed in Belgium, by systematic panoramic dental radiography. Dental anomalies were found in 45.8% of the population studied. These 332 positive dental panoramic radiographies reveal on average 2.4 anomalies for each positive case. These anomalies are significantly (p < 0.05) more frequent among older age groups (51% among those over 45 years of age, 39% among those under 35 years). There is no important difference between the sexes, although a non-significant occurrence of anomalies can be observed among men over 45 compared to women of the same age. An active study of pathologies upon a "healthy" population by means of panoramic and clinical dental examination would therefore seem to be of interest.