Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. Jul 28, 2016; 8(7): 716-725
Published online Jul 28, 2016. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v8.i7.716
Cone beam computed tomography aided diagnosis and treatment of endodontic cases: Critical analysis
Funda Yılmaz, Kıvanç Kamburoglu, Naz Yakar Yeta, Meltem Dartar Öztan
Funda Yılmaz, Meltem Dartar Öztan, Department of Endodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Ankara University, 06500 Ankara, Turkey
Kıvanç Kamburoglu, Naz Yakar Yeta, Department of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Faculty of Dentistry, Ankara University, 06500 Ankara, Turkey
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception, literature review, and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Institutional review board statement: Local ethical committee approval was obtained for the article.
Informed consent statement: All involved persons gave their verbal informed consent prior to study inclusion.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Kıvanç Kamburoglu, DDS, MSc, PhD, Professor, Department of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Faculty of Dentistry, Ankara University, Çankaya, 06500 Ankara, Turkey. dtkivo@yahoo.com
Telephone: +90-31-22965632 Fax: +90-31-22123954
Received: March 4, 2016
Peer-review started: March 7, 2016
First decision: April 15, 2016
Revised: April 16, 2016
Accepted: May 7, 2016
Article in press: May 9, 2016
Published online: July 28, 2016
Abstract

Although intraoral radiographs still remain the imaging method of choice for the evaluation of endodontic patients, in recent years, the utilization of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) in endodontics showed a significant jump. This case series presentation shows the importance of CBCT aided diagnosis and treatment of complex endodontic cases such as; root resorption, missed extra canal, fusion, oblique root fracture, non-diagnosed periapical pathology and horizontal root fracture. CBCT may be a useful diagnostic method in several endodontic cases where intraoral radiography and clinical examination alone are unable to provide sufficient information.

Keywords: Cone beam computed tomography, Diagnosis, Treatment, Endodontics

Core tip: The use of cone beam computed tomography in endodontics is increasing rapidly. Units with small field of views offering high-resolution images of teeth and related structures are specifically recommended in cases where two-dimensional systems fail to provide sufficient information. Future research should be directed towards developing units that offer higher-definition dental images with lower effective doses.