Seeing the big picture. Kootenai Family Dental uses state of the art technology to find and resolve undiagnosed dental pain

The mysterious pain in Matt Lombard’s mouth bothered him for half a year. Some days were worse than others and his frustration grew with each jolt of pain.

Compounding his situation was that his dentist couldn’t find the source of his suffering, so Lombard resigned himself to a life wracked by agonizing dental pain.

“I had no idea what was going on and my dentist couldn’t figure it out,” Lombard said. “It was 24/7. The pain would come and go. When it really hurt, it was absolutely the worst.”

The 64-year-old finally decided to go to a different dentist, hoping for a better outcome. What happened next seemed like something out of the future: His entire mouth and jaw underwent a three-dimensional scan.

Once the images were taken and processed into a virtual model of his mouth, the dentist was able to determine what was causing the problem — a nasty infection in one of his back teeth.

“They used this state of the art technology on me,” said Lombard. “It was a great relief to finally know what was going on.”

His dentist, Dr. Alexis LaRose, owner of Kootenai Family Dental, said three-dimensional digital scanning with Cone Beam technology is becoming the standard of care for patients across the country. She said it’s a huge upgrade over traditional two-dimensional scans and x-rays.

She also said Lombard’s painful situation is quite common.

“Some people have unexplained dental pain where they have seen a dentist for years and as far as anyone can tell the tooth looks fine, but the person knows ‘It just doesn’t feel right,’” said Dr. LaRose. “We can take a 3-D image and all of a sudden see what was hidden.”

Three dimensional scanning with Cone Beam digital technology is able to take 200 images of a person’s mouth in 14 seconds; then a software program creates a complete model — including bone, roots, sinuses and soft tissue. Comparatively, a traditional two-dimensional x-ray is taken with the x-rays passing from the cheek side to the tongue side, which means there can be problem areas that are hidden or disappear completely.

But it also helps with dental procedures such as implants and root canals.

“We can see where the nerves run through the jaw bone and better plan implants to avoid these nerves or plan root canals with oddly shaped roots, or avoid damage to areas like the sinuses or nerves from extractions,” Dr. LaRose said. “There’s no need to go to an expensive outpatient imaging center or take dozens of ‘films’ trying to get the right angle. We can do it in under a minute and create a custom plan together with the patient.”

The new technology allows the dentist to spot areas of possible infection, root fractures and even cancer.

“We are able to see those cracks in the roots below the gum-line, those abscesses hiding between roots, that bone loss, etc. We can literally go millimeter by millimeter through the mouth, looking at each section or slice,” said Dr. LaRose. “I have found countless tooth infections from a 3-D scan, many that did not show at all on a traditional x-ray. We also can often diagnose root fractures which tend to cause unexplainable pain in a tooth that has already been root canaled. We can also see cysts and other lesions present in the jaw bone, some that could be cancerous.”

Ultimately, it makes patients like Lombard feel positive about the dental experience for a change.

“I am no stranger to going to the dentist, but this was the first time I felt like I was in good hands,” said Lombard. “Dr. LaRose took care of me.”

--Written by Marc Stewart, Director of Sponsored Content.

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