A face scan knows the smile but not the bone. A CBCT knows the bone but not the skin. An intraoral scan knows the teeth to the micron but nothing above the gumline. Fuse all three into one aligned 3D record and you have something...
The intraoral scanner records the mouth as it looks - a flawless colour surface, and nothing beneath it. The radiograph records the mouth as light passes through it - the roots, the bone, the hidden lesion - and almost nothing of the surface. Each is...
Two radiographs of the same tooth, taken months apart, can look identical to a trained eye while a real lesion quietly advances between them. Digital subtraction radiography is the technique that makes that invisible change visible: align the two images perfectly, subtract one from the...
One instrument captures the surface and refuses to look beneath it. The other looks straight through and forgets the surface exists. For decades the clinician fused them in the mind. Now the software does it - and the craft is changing....