Digital dental imaging refers to taking any dental image—an intraoral radiograph, CBCT scan (3D X-ray), facial or intraoral photograph—and digitally enhancing or adapting it for a variety of purposes.
Treatment planning
If you would like to see an accurate visualization of the final outcome of a dental treatment, such as tooth whitening or veneers, before you commit to it, digital imaging makes that possible. Using a digital image of your mouth viewed on a monitor, we can show you any issues that we see and determine early in the treatment planning process what outcome you are hoping to see and what is achievable in your specific case. This process enhances your understanding of the dental treatment being considered.
Enhancing radiographs
The ability to enhance digital radiographs (X-rays) has made diagnosis easier and has improved our practice. For example, just by adjusting the contrast and brightness on a digital X-ray, we can see details we were not able to see before with conventional radiographs.
CBCT (3D rendering)
Advanced software enables us to take CBCT scans of your mouth and create and enhance slices in any plane. The software enables us to create a 3D view of you that we can use for diagnosis and treatment planning, which in the past would have only been possible through exploratory surgery. We can also use a CBCT scan to place a dental implant on the computer and then produce a surgical guide that allows us to achieve the same result in the dental chair.
Contact Affinity Dental Sherwood Park today for more information about the technology in our office, including digital imaging.