Methods: The skulls of three female cynomolgus monkeys (Maccaca fascicularis), terminated for other research purpose, were fixed and stored in paraformaldehide solution. These were scanned using Planmeca ProMax 3D smart cone beam CT instrument at a resolution of 200 µm isometric cube voxel and using i-CAT cone beam CT instrument at a resolution of 250 µm isometric cube voxel. We analyzed the trabecular bone both in the maxilla and mandible, on the left side between the roots of the third molars. Following preparation of dental jaw sections with relevant molars (M3 and M2), the samples were scanned using microCT (SkyScan 1172) at a resolution of 17 µm isometric cube voxel. The micro CT scanning was used as a basis of comparison, as the micro CT is regarded as the best recognised radiation imaging technique. These scanned images were used as a gold standard for comparison. The trabecular structure and texture was determined by CTan v. 1.1 software (SkyScan), using manual tresholding.
Results: Correlation coefficient values between the Planmeca ProMax 3D smart and micro-CT were: structural model index: 0.79, and trabecular thickness: 0.85. Weak correlation was found between any derived parameters of iCAT and micro-CT (0-0.16).
Conclusions: The strong correlation between Planmeca ProMax 3D smart and micro-CT suggests that high-resolution cone beam computed tomographs might provide reliable derived parameters presenting the trabecular bone microarchitecture.