Cone Beam Technology

With dental cone beam computed tomography, or CBCT for short, we can take three-dimensional images of your teeth, jaw, soft tissues, and even nerve pathways right here in our office. CBCT offers much more detailed imaging than traditional x-rays, which makes it essential whenever we’re planning a surgery or other complex treatments.

The name of this technology comes from the cone-shaped beam that is used to produce images. This x-ray beam moves around your head so we can view your teeth and jaw at a number of different angles. Before CBCT, this type of imaging was only possible by sending patients to receive traditional CT scans. Now, we can generate the same high quality images with our own CBCT scanner.

CBCT scanners are commonly used for diagnosing and planning the treatment of orthodontic issues, extracting impacted teeth, dental implant placement, temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD), detecting and assessing tumors and other abnormalities, evaluation of the jaw, and for endodontic procedures.

Many patients are concerned about exposure to radiation, but CBCT scans produce lower radiation than a conventional CT scan. No special preparation is required before CBCT imaging, although you will need to remove metal jewelry, glasses, and hearing aids. There is no pain or discomfort involved and in less than a minute, the scan is complete. Because CBCT scanners are a digital technology, the images are transmitted to our computers which means during the same appointment, we can view the scans with you, discuss them, and begin planning treatment.

Procedures in dentistry today, do I really need a CT Scan to place Dental Implants? The answer is no. Dental implant procedures are one of the fastest growing in the utilization of CBCT scans. It provides the better anatomical accuracy for diagnosis, treatment planning, surgical execution and follow-ups for implant procedures. 

Cone-beam computed tomography systems (CBCT) are a variation of traditional computed tomography (CT) systems. The CBCT systems used by dental professionals rotate around the patient, capturing data using a cone-shaped X-ray beam which creates a 3-dimensional x-ray.

CBCT is useful as a primary and supplemental form of imaging.  It helps the clinician diagnosis from a 3-d perspective. Also, it provides a way to plan for treatment that is more efficient and accurate.

Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) is a radiographic imaging method that allows accurate, three-dimensional (3D) imaging of hard tissue structures. This imaging modality is capable of providing sub-millimeter resolution (2 line pair/mm) images of higher diagnostic quality, with shorter scanning times (~60 s).

During dental/orthodontic imaging, the CBCT scanner rotates around the patients head, obtaining up to nearly 600 distinct images, very similar to the traditional panoramic x-ray.

Radiation exposure from CBCT is up to 10 times less than that incurred from medical CT scanning, which exposes a patient to a dose of approximately 400-1000 µSv.