Affinity Dental Group
General Dentistry
Edmonton Alberta
780-471-2102

Our Technology

Enhanced Digital Imaging

Twenty years ago, a high end dental office was one with a camera with a macro lens and a ring flash. How times have changed.

Enhanced digital imaging refers to taking any image—a radiograph, CBCT volume study, or a facial or intraoral photograph—and digitally adapting, improving, or experimenting with it. There are several reasons we may choose to do this.

Aesthetic analysis
Want to see what your teeth would look longer/shorter/whiter/rounder etc. etc.? It’s much easier for us to preview this with you on the computer screen, to find out what your desires are early in the planning process, before we ever touch your teeth or gums.

Enhancing radiographs
Adjusting the contrast or brightness on routine radiographs is something we do every hour of every day. Is that a cavity or just the edge of the old filling? The ability the enhance radiographs has made diagnosis easier, and improved our day-to-day practice for every patient.

Volume rendering
Advanced graphics software allows us to take CBCT files and create and enhance slices in any plane. Further, the computer can create a three-dimensional view of the patient in different contrasts, with or without the skin, etc. This provides an opportunity for diagnosis previously only available through exploratory surgery and endoscopy.

Guided implant surgery
Taking things one step further, we can perform your “surgery” on your CBCT volume image on the computer screen, and then have the computer generate a special guide that allows us to reproduce the exact same result in the dental chair. The result can be faster, safer implant placement in some cases.

These are just some of the examples of enhanced digital imaging in use in our clinics. Call us today to find out how we can use our technology as part of your care.