How to Avoid a Dental Emergency During the Holidays
The holiday season is full of surprises, but dental emergencies shouldn’t be among them. Here’s what you can do to protect your oral health despite all the holiday sweets, treats, and festivities.
The Benefits of 3D Imaging
X-rays play an important role in dental care, allowing your dentist to see your tooth structure and the bones that support your teeth. But as important as X-rays are, sometimes they don’t provide enough detail about your teeth and the tissue surrounding them. That’s when 3D imaging can help.
The team at Compassionate Endodontists New York/NYC uses 3D imaging to ensure patients at their New York City practice get the most up-to-date, advanced care for optimal oral health. Here’s how 3D imaging works and how this technology can help you get the care you need.
3D imaging: The basics
Traditional X-rays are two dimensional, meaning they provide images in two “planes.” You can think of a regular dental X-ray like a drawing of a tooth that essentially shows just one side or view.
By comparison, 3D imaging shows teeth in three dimensions and from multiple angles — the way we see things in “real life.” The images created using 3D technology provide a much more realistic rendering of your tooth and the structures that surround it.
During the imaging process, you hold your head in one position while an X-ray “camera” rotates around your head. The camera uses X-rays to capture dozens of individual images or views that are then combined to form a complete three-dimensional “photographic” model of your mouth.
Benefits of 3D imaging
3D imaging offers many benefits for your dentist and for you, too.
Faster and more comfortable
Unlike traditional “bite-wing” X-rays, there’s no film to bite down on. Plus, the scans are completed very quickly making them more comfortable and easy to tolerate.
More angles
With the 3D model of your teeth, your dentist can rotate your images to view them from different angles and examine how different structures relate to each other and work together.
More details
3D images also allow your dentist to visualize your teeth and other tissues in “layers” for greater precision when diagnosing or managing treatment. They can also “zoom in” on specific areas using higher magnification for significantly more detail.
More structures
3D imaging provides your dentist with highly detailed images of your teeth — but that’s not all. The technology we use provides images of your jaw bone, airways, nerves, blood vessels, and soft tissues, too, providing a far more comprehensive picture of your oral health.
When 3D imaging is used
Because 3D imaging is so detailed and precise, our team routinely uses the technology to map out treatment plans for many of our patients. Specifically, 3D imaging is used to:
- Assess your jawbone thickness and health prior to implant placement
- Identify optimal placement for an implant
- Evaluate impacted teeth
- Examine an area prior to oral surgery
- Diagnose the cause of pain
- Identify diseases in their earliest stages
- Diagnose tumors
- Map out reconstructive surgery
- Locate facial nerves
Because of its high level of precision and detail, 3D imaging plays an important role in both the diagnosis and treatment of many oral health issues, including complex problems.
The most advanced care for your oral health
Our team is committed to offering patients the most appropriate care using state-of-the-art technology for optimal outcomes. To learn more about the treatment options we offer, call 929-229-0255 or book an appointment online at Compassionate Endodontists New York/NYC today.
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