A 3D view of your jaw, in 20 seconds

A 3D X-ray of your jaw, in plain English

A CBCT scan (cone beam computed tomography) is a 3D X-ray of your jaw. You rest your chin on a small support, the imaging arm makes one slow circle around your head for about 20 seconds, and the computer assembles a complete three-dimensional model of your teeth, jawbone, nerves, and sinuses. No IV, no contrast dye, nothing in your mouth. Where a traditional X-ray gives us a flat shadow, the CBCT model can be rotated, sliced, and measured from any angle, down to fractions of a millimeter.

Very few dental offices in the Lynchburg area have this technology in-house. We invested in it because it changes what we can plan, and how safely, especially for dental implants.

What the scan shows

For implant planning, three things matter most, and none of them are fully visible on a flat X-ray:

• Bone height, width, and density. Whether there’s enough bone to hold an implant securely, and how solid that bone actually is.
• The nerve canal in the lower jaw. The nerve that gives feeling to your lip and chin runs through the lower jaw, and every implant must keep a safe, measured distance from it.
• The sinus floor in the upper jaw. Upper back teeth sit just below the sinuses, and the scan shows exactly how much room there is to work with.

If the scan shows bone that’s too thin or too short, that’s not a dead end. It usually means bone grafting comes first, and the scan tells us precisely how much bone is needed and where to build it.

From scan to surgical plan

Guided planning means your surgery is designed before you ever sit in the chair. On the 3D model, Dr. Kim or Dr. Azevedo chooses the exact position, angle, and depth of each implant, checks the clearances around nerves and sinuses, and confirms the placement will properly support the final crown or bridge, working backward from where the finished tooth needs to be. On surgery day, that plan is carried out rather than improvised. Nothing is discovered mid-procedure. The result is a shorter appointment, a smaller surgical site, and a gentler recovery, whether it’s a single implant or a full arch.

When we use a CBCT scan

• Implant planning, bone depth, density, and proximity to the nerve in the lower jaw or the sinus in the upper.
• Difficult root canals where the canal anatomy isn’t visible on a 2D X-ray.
• Complex extractions where the tooth roots are wrapped around a nerve or near the sinus floor.
• TMJ evaluation when we suspect a structural cause for jaw pain.
• Airway assessment for sleep apnea cases where we’re considering an oral appliance.
• Bone graft planning, measuring exactly how much bone is needed and where.

Implant planning is the headline use, but the scan earns its keep across the whole practice. If a 3D view will make your extraction safer, your root canal more predictable, or your airway evaluation more accurate, we use it. If it won’t change the plan, we don’t.

Why it changes the plan

A 2D X-ray is a shadow, it tells you what’s there but not how thick, how deep, or how it’s positioned in three dimensions. For an implant, two millimeters of unseen bone can be the difference between a routine placement and an unexpected complication. CBCT lets us plan the exact angle, depth, and position before we start. The surgery itself becomes more predictable, faster, and gentler.

What the scan is like

1. Positioning, you sit or stand still, with your chin resting on a small support. No contrast dye, no IV.
2. Scan, about 20 seconds while the imaging arm rotates around your head once.
3. Review, within minutes we’re looking at the 3D images and walking you through your anatomy.
4. Planning, for implants, we use the scan to design the placement digitally before any surgery is scheduled.

Is the radiation something to worry about?

It’s a fair question, and the honest answer is reassuring. We use a focused field of view, imaging only the area we actually need rather than your whole head, and modern sensors need far less radiation than older machines to produce a sharp image. The dose from a typical dental CBCT scan is comparable to the natural background radiation everyone receives from the environment over a few ordinary days. It is a small fraction of a medical CT scan. And we only scan when the image will genuinely change your care, never as a routine add-on.

Why having it in-house matters

Plenty of practices that offer implants send patients to an outside imaging center for the scan: a separate appointment, a separate bill, and days of waiting while the images are transferred and read. Ours sits down the hall. You’re scanned during your regular visit, and minutes later Dr. Kim or Dr. Azevedo is walking you through your own anatomy on the screen, chairside, the same day. No second trip across town, no surprise facility fee, no gap between the question and the answer. It’s one of the reasons the entire implant journey, from first scan to final restoration, happens under one roof at our 15-operatory office on Thomson Drive.

Reviewed by Dr. Jihoon Kim, DDS, July 2026