Free Dental CT Viewer for Jaw Bone, Sinus, and Impacted Teeth

Getting From Disc To Explanation

Why A Dental CT Gets Ordered Instead Of A Panoramic X-Ray

A panoramic film flattens the jaw into a single two-dimensional strip, which hides exactly the depth information implant planning and impaction surgery depend on. A dental CT keeps the third dimension, so it can show how far an impacted lower third molar sits from the mandibular canal, how many millimeters of bone remain between a planned implant site and the inferior alveolar nerve or the maxillary sinus floor, and whether a root is angled toward or away from a neighboring structure. Oral surgeons lean on this depth data before extracting a wisdom tooth close to the canal, and implant planning software reads the same volume to pick an implant length and angle that avoids both the nerve and the sinus.

CT is also what settles questions a periapical film cannot answer on its own. A suspected vertical root fracture, a periapical lesion that does not resolve after root canal treatment, or a TMJ complaint with suspected condylar change all benefit from the cross-sectional detail a CT volume provides, because overlapping anatomy on a flat film can hide a fracture line or understate how far a lesion has eroded surrounding bone.

What A Dental CT Dataset Actually Contains

A medical dental CT is acquired as a helical volume of thin axial slices, then reconstructed on a sharp bone kernel that makes cortical margins, tooth roots, and canal walls crisp. Because the acquired voxels are isotropic, the same axial pass reformats into sagittal and coronal planes without any loss of detail, which is how the viewer follows a root or the mandibular canal along its full length instead of guessing at it from a single slice. Studies exported from Sirona, Planmeca, Carestream, and Vatech units all follow the same DICOM structure, so the viewer reads them the same way regardless of which unit produced the scan.

What The Viewer Puts In Your Hands

Making Sense Of The Report Wording

Dental CT reports lean on a handful of recurring phrases. “Periapical lesion” describes a dark area around a root tip that usually points to an infection tracking down from the pulp, and the report will note its size and how close it sits to nearby structures. “Canal proximity” or “contact with the inferior alveolar canal” refers to how near a tooth root or a planned implant site sits to the nerve canal, measured in millimeters, and drives whether a surgeon proceeds, repositions, or refers out. “Sinus pneumatization” describes the maxillary sinus expanding downward into the space where a molar root or implant would otherwise sit, which is why many upper posterior implant plans mention a sinus lift. Reports on a suspected fracture will describe a “vertical radiolucent line” through the root, distinct from the surrounding periodontal ligament space.

Where This Viewer Fits Among Dental Imaging Tools

This page is built for medical fan-beam CT of the jaw, the kind ordered by an oral surgeon or hospital before a complex extraction, implant case, or when a lesion needs a closer look than a 2D film provides. If your scan instead came from a cone-beam CT (CBCT) unit at a dental office, which is common for routine implant planning and endodontic work-ups, the dedicated free CBCT viewer is tuned for that smaller field of view and voxel size. Both viewers share the same browser-based, nothing-uploaded approach; they simply cover different acquisition types, and this one does not resolve enamel-level detail or gum tissue the way a clinical exam and a periapical film do.

Supported Dental CT Formats

Frequently Asked Questions

3D Rendering For Implant And Extraction Planning

Dental CT is usually acquired as a true volumetric series, so it reconstructs well into sagittal and coronal reformats and, on supported devices, a rotating 3D surface render of the jaw. Canal position, root angulation, and available bone are easier to communicate on a rotating render than on a stack of flat slices, though sharpness still depends on the original slice thickness, spacing, and reconstruction kernel chosen at the scanner.

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