Dose Reduction in Dental CT: A Phantom Study With Special Focus on Tin Filter Technique

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Medical Imaging
• Dental Imaging

Background:

• Dental imaging utilizes CT and CBCT for diagnosis.
• Optimizing radiation dose while preserving image quality is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate radiation dose exposure from dental CT and CBCT protocols.
• To identify optimal protocols balancing low dose and high image quality, with a focus on tin prefiltration.

Main Methods:

• Dose measurement using thermoluminescence detectors on an anthropomorphic phantom.
• Comparison of eight CT protocols (with/without tin filters) against a standard CBCT protocol.
• Objective/subjective image quality assessment and figure-of-merit analysis by radiologists and surgeons.

Main Results:

• Effective whole-body doses ranged from 20.7–505.9 μSv; CBCT averaged 229.3 μSv.
• Tin filter protocols demonstrated superior performance in dose, image quality, and clinical evaluation.
• Higher dose protocols, while detailed, showed lower figure-of-merit but are essential for trauma/tumor imaging.

Conclusions:

• Tin filtering effectively lowers radiation dose in dental CT without compromising image quality.
• Optimized tin filter protocols offer improved dose performance over standard low-dose CT and CBCT.
• High-dose protocols remain necessary for specific diagnostic needs like trauma and tumor evaluation.