Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of implant blooming artifact on the assessment of the peri-implant buccal bone thickness, the accuracy of two CBCT devices, and the reproducibility of CBCT images obtained in different exposure timelines. Materials and Methods: Four dental implants were placed in the mandible of a cadaver head. The distances between dental implants and the thickness of the peri-implant buccal bone were measured with a high precision caliper. The cadaver head was scanned using 2 different CBCT devices, 12 repeated scans were made while the cadaver head in its initial position (without head repositioning), and another 12 scans were made with positioning the cadaver head for each scan and removing it after each scan (with head repositioning). Two 3-Dimentional (3D) implant-planning softwares were used for measurement. Actual and digital measurements were compared to determine device-specific errors. The repositioned skull scans were used to determine reproducibility of the CBCT devices. The peri-implant buccal bone thickness was measured to evaluate the impact of implants blooming artifact in CBCT images. Results: There were statistically significant differences between the actual physical measurements and the average digital measurements of the peri-implant buccal bone thickness and the inter implant distance without head repositioning in all groups. There was no statistically significant difference between the average CBCT digital measurements when repositioning the head and the average CBCT digital measurements when the head was not repositioned. The ICC of most digital measurements measured in CBCT images taken with head repositioning was found to be in an almost perfect agreement with the actual physical measurements indicating that these measurements are highly reproducible. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that dimensions can vary due to the potential influence of blooming and scatter artifacts when evaluating peri-implant buccal bone in CBCT images, Deviations in measurements from the digital planning software and the impact of artifacts should be a consideration when using CBCT as a diagnostic tool when assessing peri-implant bony tissues, and multiple exposures with head repositioning does not significantly affect the reproducibility of measurements as long as the same CBCT device and software combination is used.
Saad H. Almujel (Sun,) studied this question.