How to acquire clear, concise images with the Excelsior Pro

With the ever-expanding role of diagnostics today in our practices, members of Catapult Education were excited to be asked to evaluate Prexion’s latest CBCT innovation, the Excelsior Pro. As a company that is based out of Japan, it has a strong history in medical and dental imaging. This latest addition to their portfolio was very positively reviewed by our evaluators.

There is no doubt that CBCT is becoming the standard of care in many of the specialties within our profession. From precise implant treatment planning to evaluating endodontic lesions, CBCT machines have led the way into our daily lives. With advancements in sleep diagnostics and TMJ evaluations, along with various dosing imaging as wonderful adjuncts, we are just beginning to understand the scope of CBCT. All four of our reviewers had previous cone beam experiences in their own offices and their overall comment was that the Excelsior Pro produced amazing images.
Images can be acquired via adjusted voxels and focal spots, but as a dentist, that is beyond my scope of knowledge. What we all want are great images, low radiation, fast processing, and software that we can use and not be intimidated by.

The primary reasons for evaluating this new CBCT machine were to see if this improved system could acquire more clear, concise images and allow better details for diagnostics and treatment planning.

The evaluators found this machine to be better or much better than those of other manufacturers. There is no evaluator who has tested the entire spectrum of competitor CBCTs, but all had previous experience with some CBCTs, with the average experience in practice by the reviewers being more than 25 years. All of the evaluators said they would purchase this CBCT and recommend it to a colleague.

The question remained if there were additional features the evaluators liked beyond the outstanding images.

Qualities appreciated by the group included:

• Anatomical accuracy and ability to aid in treatment planning. This was rated as excellent by three of the four evaluators; the fourth rated it as very good.

• Increased case acceptance and customer support. This was rated as either excellent or very good by the reviewers.

The question to the group then was which areas could be improved, and the answer was related to the complexity of the software. As with most CBCTs, the software can be overwhelming and the group felt additional training beyond the initial training was essential. They mentioned online training and overall asked if there could be ways to simplify the experience. I think this is a key way for Prexion to advance into the profession; education must be first and foremost.

Additional improvements requested included:

• Panoramic images must be nothing less than exceptional as there are still requirements for these images. As an aside, it would be a great internal question among your board as to when Panorex images are required versus low-dose CBCT images.

• Bitewing images were again brought up.

• Large field of view (which we believe has already been addressed).

• Incorporating a ceph without an arm.

• Cloud backup - is that possible?

It is without hesitation that the evaluators give a ‘Catapult Vote of Confidence’ to Prexion’s Excelsior Pro.