Usefulness of Scanora for the Examination of Edentulous Jaw.

A multipurpose, maxillofacial X-ray tomographic device, Scanora 6 (Soledex), which can be installed in dental clinics because of its small size compared to conventional CT, has been developed and introduced to Japan. In a previous study, we examined the basic performance of Scanora to assess its applicability to prosthodontic diagnosis and reported that Scanora permitted evaluation of the maxillofacial morphology and structure including jaw bone and temporomandibular joints, that X-rays obtained with Scanora were highly reproducible, and that it was a very useful instrument for examination of temporomandibular joints.In this study, prosthodontic diagnosis was carried out using Scanora in 5 patients with severe resorption or morphological abnormality of alveolar ridge in the area of defect.It was found relatively easy to derive clear-cut information on alveolar morphology, which is an important element in prosthodontic diagnosis, from tomograms obtained with Scanora.