Measurement accuracy of dental cone-beam computed tomography for assessing submillimeter distances between implant and mandibular canal: a phantom study

Description

Yoshihara and colleagues test how accurately cone-beam CT measures the gap between implant and nerve canal, in 2026 dental imaging research. Surgeons keep implants clear of the mandibular canal to avoid nerve injury, and software reports distances to a tenth of a millimeter. The team built a phantom allowing distances from zero to one millimeter in steps of a tenth of a millimeter. They scanned it at varied positions and had dentists measure gaps on two monitor types to find where imaging stops being trustworthy.

The scans could not reliably distinguish distances of 0.4 millimeters or less. Instability peaked at 0.3 millimeters, where readings scattered, with an interquartile range of 0.121 millimeters. A trend held across that range, but the sub-half-millimeter zone is where safety margins live. Yoshihara cautions that readouts imply precision the scanner cannot deliver, so clinicians should keep a bigger safety margin than the screen suggests.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13385543