What Is A Cone Beam CT Scan?

In my last blog post, I talked about the normal dental x-rays you’ll encounter in the exam rooms of almost every dental office.

But today I wanted to talk about some of the newest dental x-ray technology, and I just happen to have it at all three of my offices in the North Charlotte Region. It is called a Cone Beam Computer Tomography (CT) Scan.

This machine looks far different than the standard dental x-ray that you receive while sitting in the dental exam chair. In fact, for this, you’ll probably need to get out of the dental exam chair, and go into a different room.

The Cone Beam CT Scan actually rotates around your head (which needs to stay still), and after the machine is done, about 20-40 seconds later, it will generate very detailed pictures of your mouth. It does this by creating a cone-shaped x-ray beam to produce a large number of images that a computer processes into 3D graphics. Dentists will use these special scans when normal dental x-rays aren’t detailed enough.

These images don’t just show cavities (which they do amazingly well). They can show dental structures, soft tissues, nerve pathways, tumors and bone — all in a single scan. This allows me, or your Charlotte dentist, to precisely plan our patients’ treatments.

These treatments can include, planning the precise placement of dental implants, visualization of abnormal teeth, locating origin of tooth pain, root canal evaluation, diagnosis of dental trauma and much, much more.

-Dr. Taj

For more information, be sure to visit me or my staff at one of the three locations shown below, go to my website at ModernFamilyDentalCare.com, or watch my latest Dental Minute video: What is a Cone Beam CT Scan (embed video)

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