From back surgery and jaw realignment to canine orthopedics, imaging specialists around the world are making no bones about the value of Varian’s X-ray image detectors.

After a nasty bicycle accident left 35-year-old Hope Baldwin with devastating facial injuries, including a shattered chin and broken bottom jaw, she suffered through multiple reconstructive surgeries. When an operation at a clinic in Florida failed to fully correct the results of the trauma, Baldwin, who runs a beauty salon in Madison, Georgia, began looking for another maxillofacial surgeon. Her research took her to Glenn Maron, DDS, at the dental practice of Goldstein, Garber & Salama in Atlanta.

“I chose Dr. Maron because of his vast experience and because of the advanced technology at his office,” Baldwin says. This technology includes the Imaging Sciences i-CAT™ Cone Beam 3-D Dental Imaging System, a dental scanner that uses the Varian PaxScan® X-ray image detector to provide dental offices with a compact, easy-to-use diagnostic and planning tool.

“The i-CAT provides us with unprecedented 3D views within minutes,” Dr. Maron explains. “It leads to a tremendous savings in time and money for patients because I’m able to make an accurate diagnosis almost instantaneously.”

In Hope Baldwin’s case, the availability of high-quality 3D images enabled Dr. Maron to determine that further surgery would not be necessary. “We could see what was going on with her jaw joint very clearly and that helped us determine that we could proceed to fix her problem with orthodontia, instead of the typical surgical route,” Dr. Maron says.

Baldwin has already noticed some improvement from the treatment and is looking forward to coming out of braces in about six months. “It’s been a very emotional time,” she says. “But I am confident in the treatment the doctor has prescribed.”

COMFORTING VIEWS FOR PET OWNERS
Another key market for Varian PaxScan has been veterinary medicine. Sound Technologies, a division of the nationwide pet healthcare services provider VCA Antech, produces the TruDR™ veterinary digital radiography system using Varian PaxScan X-ray image detector technology.

The Veterinary Medical and Surgical Group in Ventura, California, is one of about 15,000 veterinary clinics that regularly purchase equipment from VCA Antech. Founded by Kenneth Bruecker, DVM, in 1988, the clinic now employs 70 people in a multi-specialty practice covering orthopedics, neurosurgery, internal medicine, critical care, and diagnostic imaging services.

After carefully watching imaging technology evolve over the last few years, Dr. Bruecker purchased two TruDR systems a year ago and uses them to image about 30 patients a day. These patients are primarily cats and dogs undergoing treatments for just about everything from hip replacement surgery to lung cancer. However, Dr. Bruecker also performs pro bono work for local wildlife facilities and uses the system to diagnose animals such as endangered owls and eagles suffering from bone fractures.

“These digital X-ray detection systems have been phenomenal because they speed up the acquisition time of radiographs and enable us to enhance and manipulate images,” Dr. Bruecker says. “That means less time on the table, less stress on the animal, and an accurate diagnosis almost immediately. The pet owners are especially impressed by the quality of the images since they are often able to see the true extent of the problem for themselves—and that reassures them that their pet is in good hands and receiving excellent care.”

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