[2][5] Cone beam CT using kilovoltage X-rays (as used for diagnostic, rather than therapeutic purposes) attached to a linear accelerator treatment machine was first developed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

[12][13] CBCT aids image guidance during interventional radiology procedures treating various medical conditions including knee osteoarthritis, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and hepatocellular carcinoma.

[18] According to the American Association of Endodontics, there are numerous specific situations in which 3D images produced by CBCT enhance diagnosis and influence treatment, and its use cannot be disputed over conventional intraoral radiology based on ALARA principles.

The American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology (AAOMR) suggests cone-beam CT as the preferred method for presurgical assessment of dental implant sites.

[20] As a 3D rendition, CBCT offers an undistorted view of the dentition that can be used to accurately visualize both erupted and non-erupted teeth, tooth root orientation and anomalous structures, that conventional 2D radiography cannot.

[28] The CBCT scanner is mounted on a C-arm fluoroscopy unit in the interventional radiology (IR) suite, which offers real time imaging with a stationary patient.

This eliminates the time needed to transfer a patient from the angiography suite to a conventional computed tomography scanner and facilitates a broad spectrum of applications of CBCT during IR procedures.

Cone beam CT is also inspect and detect defects of tiny sizes, such as internal pitting corrosion or cracks of an object in quality control.

[41] International organisations such as the World Health Organization and ICRP, as well as many local bodies and legislation, encourage the idea of justification for all medical exposures, where risks and benefits must be weighed up before a procedure goes ahead.

[42] There are a number of drawbacks of CBCT technology over that of CT scans, such as increased susceptibility to movement artifacts (in first generation machines) and to the lack of appropriate bone density determination.

Compared to multidetector computed tomography (MDCT), the wider collimation in CBCT leads to increased scatter radiation and degradation of image quality as demonstrated by artifacts and decreased contrast-to-noise ratio.

The temporal resolution of cesium iodide detectors in CBCT slows data acquisition time to approximately 5 to 20 seconds, which increases motion artifacts.