Abstract
PurposeThe goal of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of using photon-counting spectral CT for dental applications. This paper qualitatively analyzes the visibility of accessory canals (ACs) and metal artefacts from dental implants for cone-beam CT (CBCT), microtomography (microCT), and photon-counting spectral CT (PCSCT).Materials and methodsAll of the teeth in this study were extracted, and eight teeth in total were scanned on a CBCT scanner, a microCT scanner and on a PCSCT scanner. Six of the teeth that were scanned have accessory canals, one has a titanium rod attached to it, and one has a gutta-percha point inside it. Qualitative analysis was done to compare the different imaging modalities.ResultsThe subjective image analysis demonstrated similar performance in AC detection and visualisation for PCSCT and CBCT (p value >0.05). Both PCSCT and microCT performed similarly for metal artefact reduction, and both were superior to CBCT (p value <0.05).ConclusionAlthough microCT provides detailed information about small anatomical structures, it is not suitable for in vivo use. However, the PCSCT scanner was able to detect small anatomical structures in teeth comparable to CBCT, as well as being superior in reducing metal artefacts from dental implants. This study showed that PCSCT is a promising modality for future dentistry applications.
Highlights
Computed tomography (CT) scanning has made a tremendous impact in medical applications and its uses have shown an exponential increase since the 1990s.1 In dental applications, the uses have mainly been in microCT, but technological innovation has remained relatively static
Images from the three modalities were not optimised for dentistry applications, this paper presents the scored for determining the presence of metal artefacts for cone-beam CT (CBCT), first-ever explorative study of photon-counting spectral CT (PCSCT) for dentistry applications
The mean, standard deviation and the standard error of the mean were calculated for the PCSCT images and the CBCT images
Summary
Computed tomography (CT) scanning has made a tremendous impact in medical applications and its uses have shown an exponential increase since the 1990s.1 In dental applications, the uses have mainly been in microCT, but technological innovation has remained relatively static. Spectral scanning (using multiple energy bins) has been shown to be an important advancement in CT technology, in material discrimination and artefact reduction.[2,3] Advances in CT detectors, e.g. photon-counting detectors, which potentially improve spatial resolution compared to conventional CT detectors, are contributing to the emergence of spectral CT as a new imaging modality. With these new developments in mind, it is time to examine the use of novel spectral CT scanning in dentistry. A previous study has demonstrated that the MARS PCSCT scanner produces high-quality diagnostic images in humans without exceeding current clinical radiation dose levels (
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
