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Cone Beam CT Scan
A regular dental X-ray is flat. It’s great for spotting cavities, but it can’t show the full shape of your jaw, the path of a nerve, or exactly how much bone you have. A cone beam CT scan can. It captures a 3D image of your teeth, jaw, and surrounding structures in a single quick spin.
At Family First Dental in Rexburg, Dr. Craig Stout uses cone beam CT imaging to plan treatment with real precision, especially for implants and complex cases.
Because it’s three dimensional, the scan gives us detail a flat X-ray can’t:
We don’t take a 3D scan for a routine checkup. We use it when the extra detail changes your care, such as planning a dental implant, mapping a tricky root canal, evaluating wisdom teeth, or looking at the jaw joint. For everyday needs, a standard dental X-ray is enough.
Cone beam CT uses a focused, low dose of radiation, and the scan takes only seconds. According to RadiologyInfo.org, dental cone beam CT delivers far less radiation than a standard medical CT. We only recommend it when the information will improve your treatment.
The scan happens right here in our Rexburg office, and Dr. Stout reviews it with you so you can see what he sees. You’ll get a clear plan and an exact cost before any treatment, with no pressure. Patients visit us from Rexburg, Rigby, Sugar City, and St. Anthony.
Dr. Craig Stout uses cone beam imaging as part of his planning process for implants and other complex procedures. Having a precise 3D map of your anatomy reduces surprises during treatment and lets him approach each case with a higher level of confidence — which benefits you directly in the form of more predictable results.
Family First Dental provides advanced imaging for patients from Rexburg, Rigby, Sugar City, St. Anthony, and across the region. Call (208) 400-9946 to book an appointment and discuss whether a cone beam scan is part of your treatment plan.
It’s quick and easy. You sit or stand still while the scanner makes one slow rotation around your head. The whole thing takes about 10 to 40 seconds. It’s an open machine, not an enclosed tube like an MRI, and nothing touches you. There are no needles and no dye to swallow.
A regular dental X-ray and a panoramic X-ray are both flat, two dimensional images. A medical CT scan is three dimensional but uses a higher dose of radiation and is built to image the whole body. A cone beam CT sits in between. It gives a focused 3D view of just your teeth and jaw, at a much lower dose than a medical CT.
Dr. Stout reviews the scan with you during the same visit. You see the same 3D image he does, which makes it much easier to understand what’s going on and why a treatment is or isn’t needed. It turns a hard to picture problem into something you can actually see.
We don’t scan everyone, and we don’t take one at a routine cleaning. A cone beam scan is for the cases where the extra detail actually changes your care. If a standard X-ray answers the question, that’s what we use. Keeping imaging to what you truly need is part of how we keep your care, and your radiation exposure, reasonable.
Beyond implants and root canals, a 3D scan can help us:
We use the smallest scan area that answers the question, so we’re not imaging more than we need to. We follow the principle of keeping radiation as low as reasonably possible, and we only take a 3D scan when it will change your treatment. For most visits, a regular X-ray is all you’ll ever need.
Before taking out lower wisdom teeth, it helps to know exactly where the roots sit next to the nerve in the jaw. A flat X-ray can make that hard to judge. A cone beam scan shows it in 3D, so we can plan a safer, smoother extraction and talk you through any risk ahead of time.
Need a 3D scan for an implant or root canal in Rexburg? Call Family First Dental at (208) 400-9946. Evening and Saturday appointments are available.
Our friendly team at Family First Dental is here to help! Contact our office in Rexburg today and let us take care of your dental health.
