The visibility of mandibular canal on orthoradial and oblique CBCT slices at molar implant sites

The aim of the present study was to compare visibility of the mandibular canal on cone beam computed tomography (CBCT)-based orthoradial and oblique slices at molar implant sites. CBCT images for 132 mandibular molar implant sites were selected for the study. After generating orthoradial and oblique slices, two observers evaluated the visibility of the mandibular canal using three-point scoring scale (1–3, good to excellent). Wilcoxon signed-rank test compared the visibility scores of the two slices. Both orthoradial and oblique slices obtained from CBCT had only very good to excellent mandibular canal visibility scores. At 114 mandibular molar implant sites, the visibility score was equal on both orthoradial and oblique slices. Although the visibility score was higher on orthoradial slices for 12 implant sites, the visibility score was higher for six implant sites on oblique slices and the difference was not significant. Therefore, the visibility of the mandibular canal was excellent and comparable on most of orthoradial and oblique slices obtained from CBCT images.