If you want to be treated by the right dental practice, finding one that has an in-house CT scan machine is essential. At The Denture & Implant Clinic, Dr. Suril Amin uses an in-house CT scanner for a wide variety of purposes.
A CT scanner is an advanced x-ray machine, which takes thousands of very small images and pieces them together to form one 3-dimensional image. This image is incredibly accurate and has many advantages of normal 2-dimentional x-rays. These benefits include:
1. Having detailed information on where nerves are
There are a few areas in the mouth that contain structures of large nerve bundles. If these are damaged, you can be left with numbness or altered sensation that can be temporary and or permanent. We perform a CT scan procedure on every single patient before we start surgery so we know exactly where these vital nerves are and we always stay away from them. Historically, we have never had any incidence of nerve damage at our clinic.
2. Knowing where the oral arteries are
The same importance of knowing where the nerves are applies to the blood vessels as well. We don’t want to damage your blood vessels either, so it is good idea to know exactly where they are too.
3. Knowing how much bone you have
This is important when you are having a dental implant placed so that we can predict what implant sizes to use, which directly impacts our overall treatment plan. For example, if the jaw bone can only accommodate smaller implants, then we either have a choice of adding extra bone (for example, via a sinus lift) or putting two smaller implants in and linking them together.
The main reason it is important to know how much bone you have is that we can plan your case in advance accordingly. That means we can tell you the exact fees up front because will know what procedures are needed to successfully place the implants and how many you will need.
4. In-house is the best
As many clinics only dabble in implants, only placing a few per month, they don’t have the need to buy an in-house CT scanner. The CT scan machines are very expensive, so only practices who place a lot of implants will be able to justify the costs. If a dental practice doesn’t have a scanner, they will usually refer you to London, where you will need to go get the scan done and then come back to your local clinic for another consultation. At our clinic, we take the scan and then you see the Implantologist straight away so there’s no waiting around for results.
5. Infections
Another benefit of an in-house CT scanner is that we can see infections from teeth on these superior quality x-rays, which allows us to plan implant treatment better and also figure out which teeth are infected.
- Sometimes if it’s a small or chronic infection, we can scoop out the infection and place the implants on the same day
- If it’s an acute infection or really big, it’s best to remove the tooth and let the area heal before placing the implant
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Being able to better plan your care and predict potential issues like infections are what makes it ideal to have a CT scanner on site. If no CT scans were taken, then the dentist could make the error of thinking it is OK to place a, implant on the same day and then get into difficulty during surgery, adding unanticipated time and costs to your treatment.
Our motto is “plan well and everything else becomes easy!”
If you need dental implants or other procedures, call The Denture & Implant Clinic at 020 8629 1226 to schedule an appointment.
