Capturing the Internal Anatomy of the Dentition for Tooth Explorer

Abstract

Dental students currently learn the internal anatomy of the dentition by looking at different cross-sections that have been sliced from the teeth. This helps them get a general idea of what is inside, but some of the intricacies of the canals and other minute structures are not observable from a single slice. By using a Micro-CT scanner we were able to digitize teeth in their entirety with great detail, revealing some of the structures that single slices missed. The 3-D visualization software that is available today combined with the data we collected will make learning and understanding the internal anatomy of the teeth much easier and will reveal structures that were extremely difficult to observe before.