Cone Beam Computed Tomography

When it comes to dental care, one of the most important parts of any treatment or service is the ability of diagnostic technology to find what the dentist is looking for. Most patients are used to oral examinations and the occasional x-ray, but sometimes those things aren’t enough. That’s when dentists have to use more advanced technology to perform the diagnostics they need to give patients the proper level of care. Who wants their dentist to miss an issue that could have been detected if they had only looked a little harder?

One of the latest diagnostic technology advancements for dentists is cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). It has allowed dentists to detect issues and deliver treatment like never before, saving millions of patients time, energy, and headaches by being able to identify and treat issues that would otherwise go unnoticed.

What is CBCT?

Cone beam computed tomography is a type of x-ray technology used when a traditional x-ray is insufficient to get the image that a dentist needs. The problem with traditional x-rays is that they produce a single flat image from one viewpoint of the mouth. There is no way to enhance details or look at the image from multiple angles, and even if you take multiple x-rays, more is needed to find what the dentist is looking for.

CBCT uses a cone beam x-ray that rotates around an object on a fixed point to capture a three-dimensional image of whatever the x-ray targets, in this case, a patient’s mouth. With a 3D dental CT scan using this technology, the dentist can detect things they would not be able to see with normal x-rays. Thanks to the computer-aided portion of the technology, it is also possible to enhance the image or check for specific problems like signs of lesions, cancerous tissue, gum disease, bleeding, or other problems. This greatly increases the dentist’s ability to diagnose and treat dental issues.