Most patients ask about the surgery when they come in for an implant consultation. How long will it take? Will it hurt? When will I be able to eat normally again? Far fewer ask about the planning. That makes sense: planning is invisible, surgery is visible. But the planning of an implant has more to do with the long-term success of the treatment than almost anything that happens on the day of surgery, and the single most important planning tool in modern implant dentistry is a CBCT scan. This post explains what a CBCT scan is, what it shows, and why we wouldn't place a dental implant without one at Kettering Dental & Implant Clinic.
What we'll cover in this post:
CBCT stands for cone beam computed tomography. Mechanically, it is an X-ray machine that rotates around your head and captures hundreds of images, which a computer then assembles into a full 3D model of your jaw, teeth, sinuses, nerves, and surrounding bone. It looks similar to a panoramic dental X-ray machine. You stand or sit, you stay still for around twenty seconds, and that's it. There is nothing invasive about it.
The output is different from a standard dental X-ray in one fundamental way. A standard X-ray gives a flat, two-dimensional image. A CBCT gives a fully three-dimensional one, which your dentist can rotate, slice, and examine from any angle on the screen. That difference might sound technical, but it has a real impact on how safely and predictably your implant treatment can be planned.
It is also worth saying clearly: CBCT scans use a low dose of radiation. The dose is higher than a single dental X-ray but lower than a hospital medical CT scan, and well within the levels considered safe for diagnostic use. We only take CBCT scans when there is a clinical reason for them, which for implant patients there nearly always is.
A standard dental X-ray will show your dentist the position of your teeth and the basic shape of the jawbone, all from a single angle. That is enough information for many purposes, like checking for decay or planning a filling. For implant work, it isn't.
A CBCT scan adds the dimensions that a flat X-ray cannot capture:
In short, a CBCT scan turns implant planning from a best-guess exercise based on partial information into a precise plan based on the actual shape of your jaw.
The reasons CBCT planning matters fall into a few distinct categories. Each one is the kind of thing that, if missed, causes the problems that bring patients in for second opinions years later.
The inferior alveolar nerve runs through the bone of your lower jaw and supplies feeling to your lower teeth, lip and chin. If an implant is placed too close to this nerve, the result can be numbness or altered sensation, sometimes temporary and sometimes permanent. CBCT scans show exactly where the nerve sits in your jaw, allowing the surgeon to plan around it with confidence.
In the upper jaw, the maxillary sinuses sit close to the roots of the back teeth. When teeth are lost, the bone in this area often shrinks, bringing the sinus closer to where an implant would need to go. Without a CBCT, your dentist is guessing how much bone they have to work with. With one, they know precisely, and can plan accordingly, including techniques like a sinus lift if bone height is limited.
Bone loss happens after a tooth is lost, and how much bone is left determines what kind of implant treatment is possible. A CBCT scan answers this question definitively. If grafting is needed, the scan tells your dentist where, how much, and what kind. If grafting isn't needed, you know that upfront.
Modern implant cases are often planned digitally on the CBCT image, with the implant placed virtually in your jaw before it is placed physically. This means the angle, depth, and position can all be optimised on a screen, taking into account the bone, the surrounding teeth, the bite, and the eventual position of the crown. Surgery then becomes the careful execution of a plan, rather than an exercise in real-time decision-making.
It is possible to place implants without CBCT planning. Some practices still do. The cases where it tends to go wrong, often years after the surgery, share common themes:
None of these are common, but all of them are more likely when planning is done on partial information. A CBCT scan is, in essence, the difference between knowing what you're doing and hoping for the best.
CBCT is part of our standard implant planning workflow. Here's how it fits into your treatment journey.
After your initial conversation with our treatment coordinator Claire, you'll come in for a clinical consultation with one of our implant surgeons. Our award-winning implant surgeon Dr Hemal Charadva leads the majority of our implant cases and reviews CBCT planning for every implant we place. The scan itself is done in-house on our CBCT machine, so there's no separate appointment elsewhere. We pair it with an iTero 3D digital scan of your teeth, which gives us a complete picture of both your hard tissues (bone, teeth) and your soft tissues (gums) in one digital workflow.
From there, the implant is planned on screen. We can show you the proposed position and explain why we're recommending what we're recommending. By the time you reach the day of surgery, there is very little we don't already know about your case. That predictability is what makes implant outcomes consistent.
Patients come to us for implant planning from across Kettering and the surrounding area, including Corby, Wellingborough and Rushden, often for the more complex cases that benefit most from careful CBCT-led planning.
In our practice, yes. If you're placing a permanent fixture into a patient's jawbone, the standard of care is to know exactly what you're working with. CBCT planning is now considered best practice in implant dentistry, recommended by international implant associations and the manufacturers of the implant systems themselves.
If you're considering implants elsewhere and a CBCT scan isn't part of the proposed plan, it's a reasonable question to ask why. There may be a good answer, since some very simple cases might be planned with conventional X-rays alone, but most modern implant cases benefit from the precision a CBCT scan brings.
Yes. The CBCT scan and the digital planning that goes with it are part of the standard implant treatment fee at our practice. We do not charge it separately when implants are being planned.
No. We have a CBCT machine on-site, so the scan happens during your visit. You don't need a separate appointment at a hospital or imaging centre.
The scan itself takes around twenty seconds. The whole appointment, including positioning and reviewing the images, is usually around fifteen minutes.
CBCT scans use a low dose of radiation, higher than a regular dental X-ray but lower than a medical CT scan, and within levels considered safe for diagnostic use. We only take a CBCT scan when there is a clear clinical reason, which for implant planning there almost always is.
Yes. We'll talk you through what the scan shows and explain how it shapes the plan we're recommending. Many patients find this part of the consultation genuinely interesting, because it makes the planning visible rather than abstract.
We can, when there is a clinical reason. For example, CBCT scans are sometimes useful for complex root canal cases, planning extractions of difficult teeth, or assessing impacted wisdom teeth. The implant case is the most common use, but it isn't the only one.
If you're considering dental implants in Kettering, the planning matters as much as the surgery. Book a free implant consultation with our treatment coordinator Claire, or call us on 01536 512046 to find a time that suits you. Your consultation includes the option of an iTero 3D scan, and any necessary CBCT planning is part of your treatment if you choose to go ahead. There's a £30 refundable deposit when you book, returned to you when you attend.
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