Amazing Technology in Dental Radiology: Cone Beam Computer Tomography

The Cone Beam Computer Tomography machine (or 3D Cone Beam Technology) is basically the latest development is dental radiology.

It is an extremely intricate tool which allows for a perfect reproduction of the skull anatomy of the patient. All the while, it emits insignificant doses of radiation.

The truth is only a very small number of dentists can afford to upgrade their practice with this expensive machine, but those who already have done so have also managed to raise the number of faithful patients to their practice. The cone beam imaging technique is extremely efficient for a very wide range of treatment applications.

This is how the machine works:
-there is a digital X-ray machine mounted on an arm that is rotating. This arm will basically circle the head of the patient as it takes the images
-the X-ray will be projected in a cone-shaped beam through the skull of the patient. Then, the image is projected directly onto a panel made of amorphous silicone
-with one single “circling” of the beam the entire head of the patient is photographed and thus the dentist will have access in about 1 minute to the entire anatomy of the patient’s skull
-the images that are captured this way, will be visible on a computer screen

The cone beam computer tomography is the beast dental diagnosis tool so far. It allows the dentist to check out with a single glimpse the bone thickness (or density) in the jaw of the patient.

Such examinations are very important while assessing the patient’s health status for dental implants for example. Then, certain internal diseases or conditions can be spotted immediately (such as cysts or tumors of the jaw bone).

The technology will also offer very precise details regarding the state of the soft tissue within the mouth of the patient, teeth that are missing, and he can even spot the exact location of a nerve canal, which is again extremely important to know before proceeding with dental implants.

The dentist can basically have a look at an image in 360degrees of the skull anatomy, and he can also flip, rotate or magnify images as needed.