Dr. Katie To explains why 3D cone-beam CT scans miss what electrical vitality testing catches. EAV measures electrical flow through teeth to detect infections before they show up on imaging, letting dentists treat problems earlier. Most offices don't have it, but the IST website lists providers who do.
So you mentioned the cone beam CT, which is the 3-dimensional x-ray imaging, and I know that's part of the technology that you have at your practice. Is there any other technology that as, as patients, we should make sure that the dentist we're seeing has to make sure that we're getting screened in the way that we should? So not many dentists familiar with, I would say, the machine called the EAV. So radiology, we have 3D CBCT. We can see that in 3 dimensions versus the 2D X-ray that you traditionally have at your dental visit. Now, when you go to a cardiologist, you have your EKG done, which is measured electricity of the heart. You also, the whole body, your whole body from head to toes is electric. We know that. And so when you having a CBCT on a tooth, you don't have any idea of how much electricity going through the tooth. Is the tooth alive? Is the tooth strong? Is the tooth weak? What's going on? Most of the time, by the time the infection's showing on a 3D CBCT or any x-rays, it's been there for some time. It's been there for some time, and that means we missed the window. Helping the tooth to get better or to really digging down to the root cause of why this tooth is getting weaker. And in our office, we have a technology called EAV. So what that does is, is really getting the electricity measurement through the tooth. And from that, we know which one is weaker, which one is really blocking the body from receiving the full electric. And that's how we can go in addressing those sites. So if you having any questions about, I have extraction done in the past, I have root canal done, and I'm concerned about if it's infected or not and how healthy it is, then beside the 3D CBCT, having that scan with the EAV, electronic according to acupuncture point, according to volt, then that will help to identify the strain and the electricity running through the tooth. And not every dentist would have accessible to that technology like we have in the office, but you can find provider. You can go to the IST website and they can have the list provider that have the machine that can do that testing for you.
