News

New dental technology has enhanced diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes. Dental Specialty Group is proud to be the leader in Nashville by being the first trained and experienced in utilization of i-CAT 3D imaging to help their patients, and assist dentists and specialists in planning and treating their patients. DSG invites you to schedule a seminar to learn more.

This dental CE is offered as a complimentary service by DSG to help you take diagnosis, treatment, and patient care to another level.

i-CAT Dental Seminar Request Form • Call 615.832.6460

While these i-CAT seminars are not currently available with dental CE credits, we do offer implant training that can include credits and has some elements of i-CAT associated with it.

I-CAT, a cone beam CT Scanner, can perform measurements, evaluate TMJ, analyze panoramic images, view in 3 planes, examine cross-sectional anatomy, change slice thickness, display MIP images, and much more. The daily benefits are…

• Patients appreciation for the open, comfortable, sit-down unit design
• Immediate access to clinical information while the patient is in the office
• Scans may last 10-40 seconds depending on the required scanning protocol
• Radiation is significantly decreased versus conventional lay-down scanning devices
• Radiation dosage also compares favorably with panoramic x-rays

There are FIVE vital areas where dental and orthodontic practices can benefit from i-CAT (CBCT) scanning technology: Dental Implant placement/planning, Jaw function and oral cavity health (TMD/TMJ and breathing obstruction), Surgery and Diagnosis, Orthodontic Treatment Planning, and Guide/Splint Development.

When you schedule your seminar (at our practice or yours), let us know which concepts are most critical to your dental practice. Below is a synopsis of i-CAT's specific benefits in those five areas…

I. Dental Implant Planning/Placement

The I-CAT benefits…

• Allows more accurate treatment planning
• Optimize dental implant treatment and placement and selection of the most suitable implant type, size, location, and angulations prior to surgery
• Precise, cross-sectional slices of any desired location in the maxilla or mandible provide exact anatomical information, including dimensions and locations
• 3-D images assist in determining if bone grafting or sinus lift is warranted in areas of insufficient bone for the implant procedure.
• Demonstrates inferior alveolar nerve location, and morphology, proximity to critical structures
• Along with third party software (such as NobelGuide™, Simplant, and others) provides the exact position and depth of the implants prior to surgery
• Improves visibility and logarithmically into facial dysmorphology, trauma, cleft palate deformities, and jawbone pathology

II. Oral Surgery & Diagnosis

> Wisdom & Emerging Teeth

The I-CAT benefits…

• More accurate three-dimensional views of impacted molars
• Better planning and performing of dentoalveolar surgery of all kinds
• Patients with impacted teeth benefit from less surgical ambiguity than when diagnosed with two-dimensional periapical or panoramic radiographs.
• Reduces surgery and anesthesia time, translating into smoother recoveries with less pain
• Determines more precise tooth position to visualize…
  • Impaction within the alveolar bone
  • Location relative to adjacent teeth
  • Location of supernumerary teeth

• Proximity to vital structures: sinus walls, nerve canal, and cortical borders
• Impacted Molars/Failed eruption of maxillary posterior molar teeth…
  • While conventional radiography can show multiple non-erupted teeth, I-CAT can provide precise location of all teeth before surgery.

Our patients are able to follow along when we demonstrate their radiographic findings. They are better informed as to risks, benefits, as well as the fact that radiation is significantly lower than conventional CT scans.

III. Jaw function/Oral Cavity Structure

> TMD/TMJ/Breathing Obstruction

The I-CAT benefits…

• Visualize bone, teeth and soft tissue
• Effective TMJ Analysis and Airway Assessment
• Accurately measure bone and jaw deformities, assess bone lesions and changes of the jaw, and detect other pathologies, such as cysts, tumors, and disease.
• Determine more precise tooth position to visualize impaction within the alveolar bone, location relative to adjacent teeth, and proximity to vital structures, such as the nerve canal, sinus walls, and cortical borders.
• Assessment of pathology…
  • Detects asymmetry, maxillary deficiency, mandibular prognathism, etc.

• On-screen assessment, evaluation, treatment plan and marked surgery
• Its high resolution ensures anatomic accuracy and assessment of all bony pathology in the maxillofacial region.
• Creates multi-planar or three-dimensional images of the condyle and surrounding structures…
  • Facilitating analysis and diagnosis (bone morphology joint space & dynamic function)…
  • Crucial elements to effective treatment outcomes in patients with TMJ signs & symptoms

IV. Orthodontic Treatment Planning

The I-CAT benefits…

• Applications for orthodontists is seemingly infinite
• Full facial skeleton reconstructions
• Finding and defining the exact location of impacted and supernumerary teeth
• Understand exact tooth position and abnormal anatomy relationships
• More accurate information can result in less invasive surgery if extracting the tooth
• Enhanced designs when moving tooth to align it
• Makes available multi-planar or three-dimensional images of the condyle and surrounding structures
• Facilitates analysis and diagnosis of bone morphology, joint space and dynamic function
• Detecting ankylosis of the condyle
  • 3D volumetric reconstructions can demonstrate deformities (fusion of the condyle)

• Designed to image (scan) the hard tissues of the dentofacial complex
• Provides an “immediate” image in the axial plane as well as two-dimensional images in the coronal, sagittal, and even oblique planes
• Achieves reformation in a volume, rather than a slice for 3-dimensional reconstructions
• Image accuracy is significant (higher resolution)
• Images are less clouded by any metal in patient's mouth
• The practice of routinely taking lateral radiographs of the skull is now unnecessary
  • 2-D plane films offer little to understand the 3-D spatial orientation of hard-tissue (dentofacial) components

V. Guide/Splint Development

The I-CAT benefits…

• On-screen treatment planning allows the creation of precise surgical splints
  • Often eliminating the need for the standard dental laboratory model

• Produces a surgical guide to achieve a flapless start to a completely successful placement
• Along with NobelGuide™ (treatment planning and surgical implementation system)…
  • Allows transfer of extraoral planning into the mouth with matchless precision and simplicity
  • Placing of the implant, abutment and restorative crown or bridge is simultaneous
  • Shows the exact position and depth of the implants prior to surgery

Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons, Dr. Tania Nkungula-Howlett and Dr. Brian Howlett, encourage you to seek out continuing education and training that improves your dental practice, clinical outcomes, and the patients' experience.

Schedule your i-CAT seminar today or just call and we can answer the questions you have.
I-CAT Dental Seminar Request Form • 615.832.6460