What is a Cone Beam Scan?

Also known as dental cone beam computed tomography, cone beam scans are smaller versions of CT scans used exclusively in dentistry. A cone beam scanner is a special type of x-ray machine that can provide a clear and total view of the patient’s face, mouth, and jaws.

Unlike the traditional CT scan used in virtually every hospital nowadays, cone beam scanning captures slices of the face and both jaws in just one quick scan rather than taking separate scans one layer at a time. Thanks to this, there’s no overlap of slices and an extremely detailed and accurate picture of the patient’s mouth and jaws is made possible. Once the images are taken, they are sent to a computer to create a precise 3-D model of the patient’s mouth, jaws, and face that can be manipulated from all angles on a computer monitor.

Cone beam scans are commonly used for planning the treatment of several dental issues like surgical planning for impacted teeth, accurate placement of dental implants, evaluations of the jaw, sinuses, nerve canals, and nasal cavity, determining bone structure and tooth orientation, as well as an array of other procedures.

Furthermore, with the new improvements to the technology, there’s a significantly smaller chance of radiation overexposure, thus making cone beam scans safer as opposed to traditional x-rays. They’re also much faster and cheaper than common CT scans since they can pump out results in a matter of minutes.