Influence of Voxel Size on CBCT Images for Dental Implants Planning

This study was developed to evaluate the influence of voxel size on bone measurements for implant planning.

The research was performed by using edentulous synthetic human mandibles with different levels of bone resorption. For each mandible, height and bone thickness were measured with a digital caliper. The PaX-i3d device was used to acquire the volumes of the five mandibles, with 50kVp, 4 mA, and a voxel size of 0.08 mm. After the acquisition, the images were reconstructed in the software CS three-dimensional Imaging, with four different sizes of voxels: 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 mm. All volumes were analyzed by a single evaluator who performed measurements to obtain bone height and thickness, using the reference points that were considered in obtaining the gold standard. The data were analyzed by ANOVA with a significance level of 5%.

There was no significant difference in the measurements obtained with different voxel sizes, both for bone height measurements and bone thickness. There was no statistically significant difference in measurements in thickness in comparison to the gold standard.

When necessary, to measure height and bone thickness, it is possible to recommend voxel images of larger size (0.40 mm) without compromising the quality of the patient's clinical planning.