Dear Imaging & CAD/CAM Insider,
From radiation concerns and technological advances to the need for more standards and guidelines, Dr. Allan Farman addressed a broad range of issues during his two years as president of the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology.
Now immediate past president, Dr. Farman sat down recently with DrBicuspid.com and reflected on how far the specialty has come and what's next on the horizon, including guidelines for appropriate use of cone-beam CT. Read more in this latest Imaging & CAD/CAM Insider Exclusive.
In other Imaging & CAD/CAM Community news, while fluorescence-based caries detection devices have been shown to offer clinical decision-making support, visual inspection should continue to be the primary method of detecting occlusal caries, according to a study in the April Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA). Read more.
And when it comes to dentistry, the adoption of cone-beam CT has so far been strongest in orthodontics. But a literature review in last month's JADA questions whether cone-beam CT should be as widely used as it is in orthodontics.
Also, cone-beam CT appears to be as accurate as 2D panoramic radiography for predicting whether the inferior alveolar nerve will be exposed during mandibular third-molar extraction in adults, according to research presented last month at the University of Toronto Faculty of Dentistry's Research Day.
Meanwhile, advances in the biomonitoring of the effects of dental x-rays on oral mucosa cells have shown that radiation exposure can induce DNA damage and cytotoxicity in these cells, according to a literature review in Dentomaxillofacial Radiology.
In a related story, a study in the European Journal of Radiology lends further support to the use of thyroid collars during cone-beam CT imaging to reduce radiation dose exposure in the thyroid, esophagus, salivary glands, eyes, and other vital organs in the oral and maxillofacial region.
And a new radiation protection law slated to go into effect in California in July would require all California radiologists -- including those specializing in oral and maxillofacial image reading -- to add radiation dose levels to their reports and report radiation overdoses to patients, physicians, and state regulatory officials.
In product news, medical professionals seeking to deploy Apple's new iPad for viewing diagnostic images will find a lot to like in the latest iteration of the tablet computer, including its high-resolution Retina display, which gives the device the resolution of a 3-megapixel PACS monitor.
And Carestream Dental is working to ease the transition to digital imaging with the CS 7600, a computed radiography system that uses thin phosphor plates and radio frequency identification technology to bridge the gap between conventional and digital x-ray imaging.
