Assessment of alveolar bone loss with high resolution computed tomography

In this in vitro study we compared high resolution computed tomography (HR-CT) with dental radiographs regarding the interpretation of horizontal and vertical alveolar bone loss. After removal of the soft tissue and metallic restorations of 20 dentate upper and lower jaw segments 40 infra-alveolar bony defects of different dimensions were experimentally produced. The specimens were examined radiographically with standardized dental radiographs and 1.0 mm thick contiguous axial CT-scans. On the specimens, radiographs and CT-scans the bone loss was measured between the cemento-enamel junction and the adjacent alveolar bone level of 472 mesial and distal tooth surfaces; the identification, classification and vertical depth of the infra-alveolar bony defects were also compared. An average underestimation of 0.6 mm of horizontal alveolar bone loss in the dental radiographs and an overestimation of 0.2 mm in CT-scanning was shown. No significant differences between the imaging accuracy of horizontal alveolar bone loss between dental radiographs and CT-scanning could be evaluated. In the dental radiographs 24 (60%) of the infra-alveolar bony defects could be identified and the vertical depth was underestimated by a mean of 2.2 mm. In comparison, all 40 (100%) infra-alveolar defects could be identified in the CT-scans and the vertical depth was underestimated by an average of 0.2 mm. The HR-CT-technique offers a three-dimensional interpretation of the alveolar morphology without overlying structures. This permits a high identification rate and classification of infra-alveolar bone loss according to the number of surrounding bone walls into one-, two or three-walled bony pockets.