I had a patient come into my office as a new patient a few weeks ago. She was complaining of pain on the upper left that has been pretty consistent for a few years. Her previous dentist sent her to have endodontic treatment done and a crown was placed. The problem was the tooth never really felt that much better. She was told from her general physician it was probably sinus related and she was put on antibiotics which helped for a bit and then sinus meds. However, the symptoms kept coming back. I took a cone beam scan and two things happened: 1) I was immediately able to show her what was wrong and what needed to be done to fix it, and 2) I saw another potential problem and used cone beam and the implant planning software to show her what her options would be.  

If you look at the first photo, it is just an image of the reconstructed pan from the 3D scan. You can see the tooth had endodontic treatment, but it is tough to tell if anything else is going on. 

The next few photos really show what is going on and why I have a total love affair with my cone beam technology. It helps make me be so much more comprehensive in my ability to diagnose problems and treatment plan solutions. Look at the perforation into the sinus from the infection on the palatal root and all the inflammation in that sinus. 

We were able to show her how having that tooth removed, grafted and eventually a dental implant place if she choose to do that would be the proper treatment and would get her out of the discomfort and on the way to healing.  

What was also great about taking this scan, besides diagnosing and treating the problem, was I was able to show and discuss the problem of her congenitally missing premolar #20. I was able to show her how little was left of the primary roots, how much bone she still had to get an implant into the site, and also exactly where I was going to place that implant.

This gave the patient a such a sense of confidence based on how we were able to plan the procedure that she is setting up the appointment to place and restore #20 once 15 has been addressed and resolved. I love my XG3D!