For a century the radiograph told us almost everything about a tooth - and quietly kept one secret. Pressing a three-dimensional root system flat onto a single plane, it overlapped canals, hid the ones tucked directly behind others, and turned a fused, ribbon-like root into...
A digital impression looks instantaneous, but it is assembled - thousands of small optical frames, each a shard of surface, registered into one continuous mesh. Understanding how the scanner sees explains everything about where it struggles....
The same cone-beam volume you acquire for an implant plan carries something more permanent than a treatment record: a portrait of a person specific enough to name them. A look at forensic odontology as imaging craft....