The effect of voxel size on the measurement of mandibular thickness in cone-beam computed tomography

Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is a new imaging technology that has been widely used in implantology, oral and maxillofacial surgery and orthodontics. This method provides 3-D images that are composed of voxel, which is the smallest image unit, and determines image resolution. Smaller voxel is associated with the higher resolution and also greater radiation exposure. This study was aimed to find out the effect of voxel size on the measurement of mandibular thickness.

Using voxel sizes of 0.30 mm and 0.15 mm, two CBCT protocols (protocol 1: Field of view (FOV) of 15 cm, 85 kVp, 42 mAs, 0.15 mm voxel, 14 s scan time; protocol 2: FOV of 15 cm, 85 kVp, 10 mAs, 0.30 mm voxel, 14 s scan time) were carried out on 16 dry human mandibles with permanent dentition. Mandibular thickness was measured at seven different sites (midline region, bilateral canine regions, bilateral mental foramen regions and bilateral molar regions). Analysis of variance was used for analysis of data using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). P < 0.05 considered to be statistically significant.

No statistically significant differences were found between different protocols regarding the mandibular thickness (P > 0.05).

Considering the insignificant differences of the mandibular thickness measurements using different voxel sizes, it would be more reasonable to use 0.30 mm voxel size instead of 0.15 mm voxel size to avoid unnecessary radiation exposure.