For the past decade, some dental offices have changed their view of radiography, literally. Cone Beam Computerized Tomography (CBCT) scanners presented the opportunity to obtain a 3-dimensional view of the mouth, that improved diagnosis, facilitated treatment planning and enhanced opportunities for patient education. Before in-office CBCTs became available, many patients who needed 3-D scans were referred out to hospital or imaging centers to obtain medical CTs. This was not only inconvenient and time consuming, but also exposed dental patients to more radiation than was necessary for dental treatment. Recently, articles have appeared cautioning the public about the increased health risks from medical CT scans. While it is worthwhile to take precautions to avoid exposure to unnecessary radiation, it is also important to avoid confusing radiation exposure statistics of medical CTs with those of dental CBCT scans.

PaloDEx Group, the corporate behind CBCT manufacturers Soredex & Instrumentarium has been acquired by Danaher Corp. of iCAT, Gendex, DEXIS and ISI fame.

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In our survey of the Digital Dental Labs, as we promised in our previous post (Digital Dental Labs), we have drawn up a picture of how those labs complement dental practices which utilize CBCT. The Digital Dental Labs offer various services, which not only complete the picture to the dentists, but they actually allow them to take all clinical and aesthetic factors into consideration, and to minimize surgical risks.

The CBCT technology arrived as fast as a TGV at the dentistry station some years ago. Many aspects of dentistry have become “Digital” with such technology- which was pretty much expected by many dentists, practitioners and professors. Some of us may agree or disagree on the benefits versus drawbacks; however, we would all agree that what we used to call 3 years ago a gizmo is becoming an everyday practice.

The use of CBCT has developed for dental clinical diagnostic use and, due to the advantages it offers such as its relatively small size, less radiation exposure and lower cost, its use has proved to be effective in the diagnosis and planning of different orthodontic aspects.