Written By Kevin Kerfoot / Reviewed By Ray Spotts
For dentists to plan a dental implant operation, the implant size and position, dentists must know the exact location of the mandibular canal - a canal located in both sides of the lower jaw that contains the alveolar nerve. Since the lower jaw is an anatomically complex structure and medical experts use X-ray and computer tomography (CT) models to detect and diagnose such structures, dentists and radiologists typically define the location of the mandibular canals manually from the X-ray or CT scans.
