Reporting a CBCT
Some time ago we produced a standard CBCT report that has been developed and modified over time based on experiences, regulations and discussions with other clinicians. We use that to report our scans. It staggers me how many people don’t even understand the concept of reporting in MPR and why this is the most important view for reporting scans and measuring critical measurements, for example beneath the sinus or above the inferior dental canal.
It also staggers me that the companies that supply these machines don’t insist that people train properly to use them. It seems a short half-day or half an hour training with an engineer isn’t sufficient enough. While people are pointed in the right direction, the manufacturers and suppliers don’t seem to take any responsibility for effectively installing a loaded gun in someone’s practice and then walking away without giving any safety instructions. If you can’t report a CBCT scan properly then you have damaged the patient for no reason. Regardless of whether this is legal or not it is morally reprehensible. It’s not acceptable to buy a CBCT just to make money and not worry if things are reported or not. I have a strong belief that every CBCT that is taken within a dental practice should be reported before it leaves there.
I am still bombarded with cheap CDs with patients’ names written on them in marker pen from practices who pile out CBCTs on referral for £99 a time and never report them. Most of the time the views of these CBCTs are entirely wrong and the patient has been over exposed and often in a catastrophic way for a simple examination.
Regardless of the compliant issues related to that it is just rubbish and we all have a responsibility to know how to use the technology we have, particularly when it burns people with radiation.
We run a course on this for a select few people every year. It’s in two parts, two days of teaching with The Campbell Academy guys, including Michael Bornstein, followed by reporting 20 scans at home and then having them marked and reviewed in the second stage of the course later in the year. The link to find out more about this course is here.
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