4/12/18 General Membership Meeting – How CBCT Has Changed Orthodontics Forever – Understanding its Role in Airway Development and Malocclusion Prevention

This presentation will focus on three-dimensional imaging in orthodontics and how orthodontists are fully integrating Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) into modern orthodontic practice. It will also describe how CBCT technology is giving orthodontists information that dramatically improves airway health, treatment efficiency, and patient communication.

The creation of a 3-D virtual patient using CBCT imaging is now a reality. Simply focusing on the teeth is underutilizing the power of our orthodontic treatment to improve not only our patient’s smile, but their physical health as well. This presentation will focus on CBCT-Centered Orthodontics and how to integrate CBCT into a modern orthodontic practice. It will also discuss the importance of airway in diagnosis and treatment planning. Dr. Carlson will use numerous case examples to share his story of practice transformation since installing his first CBCT machine in 2008. The advantages of a three-dimensional approach in diagnosis, airway analysis, treatment planning, and patient communication will be discussed. In addition, he will discuss some of the challenges that may make it difficult for clinicians to change from two-dimensional diagnosis to three-dimensional diagnosis and why this change is essential for the future of orthodontics.

Presenter: Sean K. Carlson, D.M.D., M.S.

Dr. Carlson is a Board Certified Orthodontist who received his dental degree from Harvard University in 1994. He received both his Orthodontic Specialty training and his Master of Science degree in Oral Biology from the University of California at San Francisco in 1998.

Dr. Carlson is an Associate Professor of Orthodontics at the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry and in private practice in Mill Valley, California. Since 1998, Dr. Carlson has served as a Senior Investigator in the Craniofacial Research and Instrumentation Laboratory at the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry. He has received several academic research awards including two American Association of Orthodontists Foundation Awards.

He has published numerous articles and abstracts in the orthodontic literature and lectures nationally on CBCT in orthodontic practice. In 2011, Dr. Carlson introduced the VCA (Visual Craniometric Analysis), which uses a unique method to visually quantify 3-D cephalometric measurements. His primary focus is on using computer technology to improve the way we study, teach and practice orthodontics. He installed Marin County’s first i-CAT CBCT x-ray machine in 2008.