Combining different metal artifact reduction levels with sharpening filters and slice thickness for the visualization of mandibular canals perforated by implants.

Objectives: To investigate the influence of combining levels of metal artifact reduction (MAR) tool with different filters and slice-thickness in the detection of mandibular canals perforated by implants on CBCT scans and to objectively assess the impact of the aforementioned combinations.

Materials and methods: Implants were placed above (8 implants) and inside (10 implants) mandibular canals of dried-mandibles. CBCT scans were obtained with the Eagle 3D unit (85 kVp, 8 mA, 5 × 5 cm FOV, 130 μm voxel size, and off/medium/high MAR levels). Examiners evaluated the scans under each MAR level and across different conditions: no filter, Sharpen 1×, Sharpen 2×; 0 mm, 1 mm, and 2 mm slice-thickness. The gray values on axial reconstructions were assessed. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, mean and standard deviation (SD) for gray values were calculated and compared by multi-way Analysis of Variance.

Results: Overall, the AUC and sensitivity decreased with high-level MAR (p < 0.0001), regardless other variables tested. Enabling MAR tool decreased mean gray values (p < 0.01) and increasing MAR levels reduced the SD values on scans with Sharpen 2× (p < 0.012).

Conclusions: High-level MAR impairs the visualization of mandibular canals perforated by implants. Moreover, enabling MAR tool decreases the mean gray values.

Clinical relevance: MAR tool, filters, and slice thickness influence the image quality of CBCT scans. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the impact of these parameters on the diagnosis of mandibular canals perforated by implants.