Digital Applications in Endodontics

Dental practices that perform endodontic treatment can also benefit from digital imaging including pre-, working, and post-imaging diagnoses. As we know, endodontic radiographs can be challenging. ⁴ In endodontics a CBCT also acquires a small FOV with a small voxel size, resulting in higher resolution and less radiation. There has been a long-standing belief that lesions are difficult to diagnose radiographically when they are in cancellous bone. Researchers at Texas A&M College of Dentistry examined periradicular lesions in periapical digital radiographs and found high inter-reliability when examining the lesions confined to cancellous bone (97.6%, 94.1%, 91.6%, 89.3%).^13,15 Considering a recent research study of U.S. postdoctoral endodontic programs showed that student CBCT-educational experiences varied widely amongst programs and residents were less confident about interpreting CBCT images, we concur with the researchers that educational efforts with CBCT instruction should be expanded in resident endodontic programs.¹⁶