There are moments in the history of medicine when a single invention changes everything. The invention of the stethoscope changed how physicians listened. The discovery of X-rays changed how they looked. And in 1996, in a laboratory in Verona, Italy, a small team of four visionary scientists changed how the dental world sees – forever. This is the story of 30 years of NewTom: thirty years of a revolution that gave birth to the world’s first dental CBCT machine, and never stopped pushing the boundaries of what diagnostic imaging can achieve.

In 2026, as we celebrate this remarkable milestone, it is worth taking a step back from the cutting-edge technology of today to understand where it all began – and why the journey of NewTom CBCT technology is one of the most extraordinary stories in the history of modern dentistry

The story of 30 years of NewTom begins in Verona, Italy, at a company then known as QR – Quantitative Radiology. Four Italian imaging experts – driven by equal parts scientific rigour and bold ambition – set out to solve one of dentistry’s most persistent diagnostic limitations: the inability to see the oral anatomy in three dimensions with a safe, accessible, and affordable technology.

In 1996, they succeeded. The result was the NEWTOM 9000 – the world’s first Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) machine designed specifically for clinical dental applications. This was not an adaptation of an existing medical CT scanner. It was a purpose-built dental CBCT machine – designed from the ground up for the oral and maxillofacial anatomy, with patient safety, clinical workflow, and diagnostic accuracy at its core.

The CBCT technology behind the NewTom 9000 used a cone-shaped X-ray beam and a two-dimensional flat panel detector to capture an entire anatomical volume in a single rotation around the patient. The radiation dose was reduced by at least five times compared to traditional medical CT scanners. The image quality was diagnostic. The clinical applications were immediately transformative. And the impact on global dental imaging was, without exaggeration, revolutionary.

Before the NewTom CBCT machine, dentists and oral surgeons relied exclusively on 2D radiographic images – flat projections that compressed complex three-dimensional anatomy into a single plane. Implant planning was educated guesswork. Root canal morphology was limited to what a periapical X-ray could suggest. Third molar proximity to the inferior alveolar nerve was estimated, not measured. The NewTom CBCT changed all of this in an instant.

For the first time, a dental clinician could rotate a three-dimensional model of a patient’s jaw on a screen, measure bone volume to within fractions of a millimetre, trace the exact path of every root canal, and plan an implant placement with complete surgical confidence. CBCT technology did not improve dental diagnosis. It reinvented it.

The story of 30 years of NewTom is not one of invention followed by consolidation. It is a story of relentless, decade-after-decade innovation – each generation of NewTom CBCT machines introducing technologies that redefined the clinical standard. Here is the full timeline: