Disturbances caused by dental materials in magnetic resonance imaging

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is the latest addition to medical imaging technology. This technique plays an important role in head and neck diagnosis. Radiologists may encounter patients with fixed dental prostheses that may produce image distortion on MRI scans of the face. The MRI appearances of dental prosthetic materials was studied in vitro, including precious alloys, non-precious alloys, ceramic prostheses, dental amalgam and composite materials. It was found that non-precious alloys produce large image deformations, whereas precious alloys had no effect on MRI images. An in vivo study showed the anatomical zones that were most affected on MRI scans.