Computerized tomosynthesis of dental tissues.

A digital method that produces an arbitrary number of tomographic slices from a finite number of dental radiographs is described. The relation between the slice thickness of the tomograms, the number of radiographs required, and the tomographic angle is determined on the basis of existing theory. In order to test the method, a series of radiographs of a radiographic phantom were taken and subsequently digitized to facilitate computer processing. From eight radiographs with an angular disparity of 4.5 degrees, tomograms with a slice thickness of about 3 mm, were produced. These not only indicate the relative position of the dental tissues in space but also show clinical relationships that are not visible in the original radiographs.