Dental & Surgical Imaging Services

At CT Dent we provide a full dental and surgical scanning and referral service, offering CBCT, digital OPG, digital CEPH scans, along with radiology and pathology reports. Our expertise also extends to the provision of surgical guides for implant placement as well as digital oral scans for orthodontic aligners. Dentists have the option to choose from 7 UK dental scanning centres.

Scanning Services

Cone Beam Computer Tomography (CBCT) scans provide high resolution, volumetric images that can be viewed in 3D allowing for enhanced viewing of critical facial anatomy and thorough analysis of bone structure and tooth orientation. The accuracy of CBCT is comparable to medical CT scan, but uses a much lower radiation dose. CBCT scan are carried out with a patient siting on a chair, as opposed to a lying in a tunnel, and the time for a CBCT scan is just twenty seconds.

An Orthopantomogram (OPG) is a panoramic or wide view X-ray of the lower face, which displays all the teeth of the upper and lower jaw on a single film. An OPG may also reveal problems with a patient’s jawbone joint which connects the jawbone to the head – also referred to as the Temporomandibular joint or TMJ.

A digital Cephalometric (CEPH) X-ray/ radiograph is taken to allow the visualisation and study of the relationships between bony and soft tissue landmarks and is primarily used on orthodontic treatment planning. Digital CEPH is also used to diagnose facial growth abnormalities prior to treatment, in the middle of treatment to evaluate treatment progress or at the conclusion of treatment to ascertain that the goals of treatment have been met.

Digital Oral Scanning

Digital impressions increase efficiency and accuracy of treatment plans and makes it possible for dentists to e-mail the ‘digital impression’ to the laboratory, rather than sending a traditional impression or stone model via regular mail. Digital impressions speed up patient treatment and reduce the need for multiple practice visits. Intra Oral Scans are now routinely used for Orthodontic Aligner placement. At Ctdent we use the Trios 3 intra oral scanner allowing dentists to digitally submit orthodontic scans for dental aligner preparation. Oral scans have also reported fewer fit issues than those submitted using traditional in-mouth impressions and are typically processed 50% faster than cases using traditional impressions.

Surgical Guides, Templates and 3D Models

Use of a surgical guide can make implant placement far simpler. The surgical guides use 3D imaging of the patient’s facial anatomy to plan the ideal implant angulation and placement. The 3D guides are provided to the clinician with a 3D printed drill guide that is used during implant placement. The use of surgical guides during implant placement can make implant placement more accurate and successful, but at the same time easier and faster for the dental implantologist.

A radiographic template is a rigid acrylic appliance which fits over a patients existing teeth and tissue. It represents the teeth to be restored and includes radiopaque markers for registering the template in the CBCT.

Anatomical 3D Model are generally used for the pre-operative planning of facial surgeries but are also used as a communication tool with patients. The 3D models are made specifically for the intended patient or for demonstration purposes, offering better insights into the complexity of the specific pathology, and provides additional information as an aid to diagnosis.

Reporting

CT Dent offers Pathology reports upon request, by a qualified radiologist who reviews the requested patients scan data to rule out pathology and any incidental findings that could affect patient treatment outcome. Our board-certified oral maxillofacial radiologists review the DICOM file from a patient’s CT scan, interpret the radiographs and create a comprehensive report covering the area/s of interest and pathology if present.

A Cephalometric (dental and skeletal relationship) trace is an overlay drawing produced from digital cephalometric radiographs. The CEPH tracings are traditionally used to facilitate dental and skeletal anatomical relationships to evaluate treatment and growth changes. Correctly identifying cephalometric measurements is quite time consuming and can impact analysis, which is why many medical professionals have turned to digital CEPH to ensure that accuracy of measurements.