Dental implant imaging: TeraRecon's Dental 3D Cone Beam Computed Tomography System

Abstract

Early in the development of implant technology, conventional dental imaging techniques were limited for evaluating the patient for implant surgery. During the treatment-planning phase, the recipient bed is routinely assessed by visual examination and palpation, as well as by periapical and panoramic radiology. These two imaging modalities provide a two-dimensional image of the mesiodistal and occlusoapical dimensions of the edentulous regions where the implants might be placed. When adequate occlusoapical bone height is available for endosteal implants, the buccolingual width and angulation of the available bone are the most important criteria for implant selection and success. However, neither buccolingual width nor angulation can be visualized on most traditional radiographs. Although clinical examination and traditional radiographs may be adequate for patients with wide residual ridges that exhibit sufficient bone crestal to the mandibular nerve and maxillary sinus, these methods do not allow for the precise measurement of the buccolingual dimension of the bone or assessment of the location of unanticipated undercuts. Because of these concerns, it is necessary to view the recipient site in a plane through the arch of the maxilla or mandible in the region of the proposed implants. Implant surgeons soon recognized that, for the optimum placement of implants, cross-sectional views of the maxilla and mandible are the ideal means for providing necessary preoperative information. For complex cases where multiple implants are required or where anatomical measurements are crucial, but also increasingly for more routine cases, more and more clinicians are recommending CT scan imaging procedure such as that offered by TeraRecon's Dental CBCT system. Because of its ability to reconstruct a fully three-dimensional model of the maxilla and mandible, CBCT provides a highly sophisticated format for precisely defining the jaw structure and locating critical anatomic structures. CBCT scans, in conjunction with software that renders immediate treatment plans using the most real and accurate information, provide the most precise radiographic modality currently available for the evaluation of patients for oral implants.