Diagnostic quality of panoramic views obtained by a newly developed digital volume tomography device for maxillofacial imaging.

Objective: To compare the diagnostic quality of 2-dimensional panoramic views generated from imaging data acquired by a newly developed cone beam machine with the diagnostic quality of conventional digital orthopantomograms (OPTs).

Method And Materials: Thirty panoramic views reconstructed from digital volume tomograms (DVT) obtained by the pre-retail version of Galileos (Sirona Dental Systems), a newly developed compact cone beam device, were compared with 30 OPT images acquired by Orthophos XG Plus (Sirona Dental Systems). Diagnostic quality was assessed by 3 observers on criteria regarding detection of diagnosis-related findings, image quality, and visualization of anatomic structures in the maxillomandibular area.