A variety of conditions including obstructive, inflammatory, infectious and neoplasms affect the salivary glands. On clinical examination, nodal masses, peripheral nerve schwammomas, and masseteric hypertrophy may mimic tumors of salivary glands. This renders the spectrum of imaging and diagnostic procedures wide to attain an appropriate diagnosis. Also, imaging serves as an immediate and preliminary choice of investigation that helps in delineating the extent of the lesion and invasion of adjacent cervical spaces, skull base, mandible, nerves and meninges in the cases of salivary gland tumors. The choice of imaging modality remains cryptic till date owing to the advancements in the field of imaging from the contingency on plain film radiography to exquisite techniques like magnetic resonance imaging, tomography and nuclear imaging. With the advances in the imaging modalities the ease of identification of pathologies and their differentiation from the physiological and morphological alterations has been increased. The review attempts to provide a keynote on the evolution and availability in the field of imaging for the diagnosis of salivary gland pathologies.
