CBCT
Lake Country Dental Care now offers an exciting new technology for our patients and for patients of other doctors who might be referred here. This technology is iCat Cone Beam Computer Assembled Tomography (CBCT) imaging, sometimes called 3-D radiographs or x-rays. Using CBCT means we now have the ability to take 3D images of the teeth, jaws, bones and facial structure at lower costs and with less energy than a typical CT scan used in hospitals.
The iCat CBCT allows us to provide quick, comfortable, and effective dental imaging for the most precise dental health diagnosis possible. iCAT technology provides 3D data for:
- Cephalometric and Panoramic radiographs
- Full facial and jaw 3D images
- Impactions
- TMJ treatment
- Airway assessments and sleep apnea
- Dental implants
- Wisdom teeth extractions
Understandably you may have questions about exposure to these types of x-rays. Here are some facts you should know about 3-D imaging. An iCat CBCT (@8.5 seconds) exposure is
- About ½ as much as a full series of digital dental images
- About 1/5 as much as full (28) mouth series of standard dental x-rays
- About 1/70 as much as a typical medical CT scan
CBCT therefore offers our patients enhanced diagnostic value at significantly reduced exposure. At the same time, CBCT scans can take an image of the entire head and most of the neck. As dentists, we evaluate teeth, jaws and surrounding supporting bone using CBCTs for those limited purposes. Our training and dental license does not provide for evaluating and diagnosing outside those areas. However since CBCT imaging can cover a broader area, we want to offer you the opportunity to have your CBCT scan read by an oral radiologist, trained and licensed to evaluate and diagnose a broader area. CBCT may show evidence of disease of the sinus, cervical spine, skull or arteries. We refer your scan to a radiologist for this purpose.