Lee Seung-Jong, Jang Kyung-Ha, Spangberg Larz S W, Kim Euiseong, Jung Ii-Young, Lee Chang-Young, Kum Kee-Yeon
Department of Conservative Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea.
Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. 2006 May;101(5):668-74. doi: 10.1016/j.tripleo.2005.06.013. Epub 2005 Nov 2.
Nonsurgical endodontic therapy of a right mandibular first molar with 3 distal roots was successfully performed with the aid of magnification. 3D data (DICOM format) of the tooth were obtained from a CT HighSpeed Advantage and a Denta Scan program produced by GE Medical Systems. The CT protocol used for this procedure involved a slit thickness of 1 mm. The 3D digital data obtained were fed into a visualization program (V-works; Cybermed Co) and then exported to the rapid prototyping machine for fabrication of the actual-sized tooth model. The material for the model-making process was starch. The 3D digital visualization and the computer-aided rapid prototyping (CARP) model clearly showed 3 separate distal roots (distobuccal, distolingual, and middle distal). The CARP technique seems to be a useful imaging technology to document unusual root anatomy in clinical dentistry.
