ADVANCED IMAGING TECHNIQUES IN ENDODONTICS

"Some people make things happen, some watch things happen, and some don't know anything happened." Endodontics remains a cornerstone in the foundation for dental restorative care in the 21st century. Without successful endodontics, we are unable to provide many patients with two of their most important facts - their ability to smile while displaying their natural teeth and their ability to use their natural teeth to eat with pain-free function. Dental radiology has long played an exciting and critical diagnostic role in dentistry, never truer than now with the rapidly expanding array of imaging modalities. Intraoral radiography was first used within weeks of the discovery of x-rays by Roentgen in 1895. Extraoral imaging, including cephalometric radiography, followed soon thereafter. Panoramic radiography has provided broad coverage of the teeth and surrounding structures since the mid-twentieth century. Each of these modalities has adapted to the digital revolution. Recent decades have seen the development of CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, and ultrasonography imaging modalities that have revolutionized dental and medical diagnosis.