Artifacts in brain magnetic resonance imaging due to metallic dental objects.

Objective: Artifacts caused by metallic objects, such as dental crowns, dental implants and metallic orthodontic appliances, are a common problem in head and neck MRI. The aim of this retrospective study was to identify the main metal dental objects that produce artifacts on brain MRIs.

Study Design: Imaged metallic artifacts and their sources were identified. Artifact image plane was rated on a score of 0 or 1 (0--distinguishable for diagnosis and 1--not distinguishable for diagnosis).

Results: Seventy-eight percent of the artifacts appearing in images were caused by orthodontic appliances, followed by dental titanium implants (18%) and metallic crowns (4%). Orthodontic appliances obtained the highest scores in all planes.

Conclusions: We concluded that is difficult to avoid the effect of metallic artifacts in the maxillofacial regions on brain scan. Removing metallic parts of the orthodontic appliance should ensure diagnostically useful quality scans.