Morphological study of the maxillary sinus using three-dimensional reconstruction of the tomographic images

A morphological study of the maxillary sinus using the computerized three-dimensional reconstruction of the tomographic images was made. Materials of this study were 86 adult dry skulls of the Second Department of Oral Anatomy of Fukuoka Dental College. The results were as follows: 1. A tomographic apparatus which could select varius X-ray tube shifts was used. The hypocycloidal shift was the best for the tomography of the maxillary sinus. 2. In the tomographs of the maxillary sinus, the images of some sections in the maximum cross-section area presented real shapes. However, the images of other sections were indistinct and influenced by the shape of the maximum cross-section. 3. Reconstruction of the tomographic images of the maxillary sinus by computer made it easy and precise to recognize the three-dimensional image. 4. The dimensions in the maximum cross-section of the maxillary sinus of the 86 adult dry skulls obtained from the reconstructed three-dimensional images were 4.59 ± 1.26 cm2 in frontal, 5.21 ± 1.36 cm2 in transversal and 8.09 ± 1.82 cm2 in sagittal tomographs. The majority of the skulls were symmetry, and a few were asymmetry in correlation between the right and left side sinuses. 5. According to the reconstructed three-dimensional images the shapes of the maxillary sinus of the 86 adult dry skulls were classified into 10 types in frontal, 4 types in transversal and 8 types in sagittal tomographs. The most familiar shape was triangular in frontal, trapezoidal in sagittal and triangular in transversal tomographs. 6. The dimension and shape of the maxillary sinus had no correlation with the frontal width of the nasal cavity. (author)