Google Knol CBCT Directory

A major illustrated directory of dental cone beam X-ray services has been published as a service  for patients, dentists and radiologists. Titled CBCT Dental X-ray Services Directory, the guide includes hundreds of free listings for three classes of providers:

• Implantologists / dentists who support CBCT. If they have an in-office CBCT scanner, it is indicated

• Universities / Dental Schools offering CBCT laboratory services

• Private CBCT Laboratories/Clinics

The guide begins with an introduction based on a YouTube video about one of the first CBCT installations in the United States. The dentist being interviewed, Dr. Robert Langlais in this 2001 news piece gets it right:

“Without this imaging, there’s more guesswork involved.”

A quotation from Dr. Steven Guttenberg (pictured) of the Washington Institute for Mouth, Face and Jaw Surgery, drives home the point:

My original impetus for purchasing a CBCT was to assist in the complete evaluation of a site to accept a dental implant. It allowed me not only to appreciate the true location of the inferior alveolar nerve canal and the mental foramen, but also the maxillary sinus and the true proximity to the incisive canal, adjacent teeth, and nasal floor. Plain films allow only the ability to judge the height of the alveolus, but with CBCT I was able to get complete information to a hundredth of a millimeter of not only the alveolar ridge height but also of its width. The CBCT also allows us to appreciate the morphology of that ridge. These are all extremely important factors to have in one’s command prior to implant placement. more…