Space Age Dental Scan

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Space Age Dental Scan
February 17, 2008
News4Jax.com

A futuristic CT scan is making a big difference at the dentistĚs office. Every year, millions of people go to their dentist complaining about pain in a tooth or in their mouth. Traditional dental X-rays often have trouble seeing the source of that pain. Now, a new high tech scan is giving dentists a clearer view.

Tony Kukowski loves to eat. But not long ago, tooth pain made it difficult. "It was a little uncomfortable eating at times. I knew something was wrong," Kukowski told Ivanhoe.

Regular X-rays didnĚt show a problem, so his dentist decided to get a better look with a new three-dimensional CT scan. "ItĚs almost like a rollercoaster ride, except the chair doesnĚt move. The machine moves around you," Kukowski says.

The Iluma provides a 360-degree look at teeth and gums using ultra-high-resolution 3-D pictures instead of the shadows on traditional X-rays. "ItĚs like looking through the tooth like Superman. You can see the inside of the tooth. You can see it from the top," Joe Kravitz, DDS, MS, and cosmetic dentist at the Center for Dental Health in Washington D.C., told Ivanhoe.

The machine exposes patients to 90 percent less radiation than traditional X-rays. As a scanner circles their head, digital plates record thousands of slices of data and put them in a 3-D skull format the dentist can manipulate any way he wants. "You get to arteries, veins and nerves. You can also see the bone, the teeth and the roots of the teeth," Dr. Kravitz says.

Dentists can zoom, spin and even cut the images to see areas a traditional scan never captures, allowing them to see problems they never could before. "We found tumors in patients where they didnĚt realize they had cancer. We have also found cracks in teeth where people complaining of pain for years," Dr. Kravitz says.

ItĚs more expensive than traditional X-rays, but is often covered by insurance. In KravitzĚs case, it actually uncovered a hole in his skull caused by a massive infection at the roots of his teeth. "We were like, 'Wow, we can see why heĚs in so much discomfort,'" Dr. Kravitz says.

A root canal and a filling led to relief. "Oh, it made a huge difference," Kukowski says.

Now he can eat again, pain-free.

Dr. Kravitz predicts one day this machine will be the standard of care. The machine is also being used for facial reconstruction on Iraq veterans.