Are panoramic radiographs reliable to diagnose mild alveolar bone resorption?

It is extremely important to assess variations between the most used radiographs in dental practice, since minimum distortion on obtained images may change diagnosis, treatment plan, and prognosis for the patient. For this, the distance between the enamel-cementum junction and the alveolar bone crest was measured on conventional and digitized periapical, bitewing, and panoramic radiographs and compared among them. From a total of 1484 records, 39 sets of radiographs that fulfilled the inclusion criteria of the study sample were selected.