Dose Reduction in Dental CT: A Phantom Study With Special Focus on Tin Filter Technique

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to determine in a phantom the dose exposure of different dental 3D sectional imaging methods (CT and cone-beam CT [CBCT]) and different CT protocols. The aim was to establish optimal protocols with the lowest possible dose and diagnostically high image quality with special consideration given to tin prefiltration. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Dose was determined with thermoluminescence detectors at 20 different measuring points on an anthropomorphic phantom. Eight different CT protocols with and without tin filtering were compared with iterative reconstruction methods and a standard CBCT protocol. Objective and subjective image evaluations and a figure-of-merit analysis of the image data were performed by radiologists and maxillofacial surgeons. RESULTS. The determined dose-length products of the nine examinations were 5.0-111.9 mGy · cm with a calculated effective whole body dose of 20.7-505.9 μSv. Cone-beam CT was in the upper midfield with an effective dose of 229.3 μSv. On the basis of dose, objective image quality, and clinical evaluation results, tin filter protocols performed best. Protocols with higher doses were significantly less useful in the figure of merit comparison but because of their detailed bony representation are particularly necessary to answer certain questions about trauma and tumors. CONCLUSION. The use of tin filtering can reduce dose in dental CT examinations, compared with standard low-dose examinations, while maintaining good image quality. The dose performance is significantly inferior even to that of a cone-beam CT examination. High-dose protocols are necessary only for certain questions.