In your imaging software, open the study and look for Export, Save As, or Output — you want DICOM format (a folder of .dcm slices, sometimes with a bundled viewer). DICOM preserves the full volume so the receiving doctor can scroll, measure, and re-slice; a screenshot or JPEG throws that information away.
A CBCT export is hundreds of small .dcm files — zip them into one archive first. Windows: right-click the folder → Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder. Mac: right-click → Compress. Expect roughly 50–500 MB depending on field of view and resolution.
Menus move between software versions, but the pattern holds: open the study, find Export, choose DICOM (uncompressed if asked), export to a folder. Here's where to look on the common systems:
CS 3D Imaging or CS Imaging: open the volume → Export → DICOM. Choose 'DICOM file set'; include the viewer only if the recipient asked for one.
Romexis: right-click the 3D study in the patient's file list → Export → DICOM Full Set. Export as multi-file DICOM to a folder.
Sidexis 4: select the exam → Output / Export → 'Export third-party DICOM'. Older Galileos units export via Galaxis.
Tx STUDIO or Invivo: File → Export → DICOM. On OP 3D units the export can also run from the acquisition workstation's patient browser.
Ez3D-i / EzDent-i: open the volume → Export → DICOM. Pick 'multi-file' so slices export as a standard series.
i-Dixel: select the study → Save/Export → DICOM. Uncheck any proprietary-format option; the receiving office wants plain .dcm.
DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is the universal medical-imaging format. A CBCT study exports as a series of .dcm slice files plus metadata, so any DICOM viewer — the surgeon's, the orthodontist's, a lab's planning software — can rebuild and manipulate the full 3D volume.
Usually not, and usually you shouldn't. Most email servers cap attachments around 25 MB — a CBCT study is 10–20× that — and standard email isn't encrypted end-to-end, which is a poor home for patient imaging. A secure transfer link solves both problems.
Only as a preview. Screenshots flatten the volume — the receiving doctor can't scroll slices, measure bone, or plan an implant from a picture of your screen. Referrals for surgery, implants, or airway need the DICOM set.
Rarely. Dental offices and labs have their own viewers, and bundled viewers bloat the file. Include one only when sending to someone outside dentistry — an attorney, a patient, a physician.
Zip the folder, not the files: right-click the exported study folder and choose Compressed/zipped folder (Windows) or Compress (Mac). One archive uploads faster and can't lose slices in transit.
Upload the zip to send.intake.dental — free, end-to-end encrypted, no recipient account needed — and share the link. The receiving office downloads and imports it into their own software.
Free, end-to-end encrypted, built for dental files. Your CBCT arrives before the patient does.
Upload the zip to Send — free, end-to-end encrypted, built for exactly this. Copy the secure link and text or email it to the receiving office. They click, download, unzip, and import into their own viewer. No CDs, no couriers, no 'the email bounced.'
NNT: open the study → Export study in DICOM format. Export the axial series, not just secondary captures.
Every referral coordinator has fought this battle: a 400 MB CBCT study, an email server that gives up at 25 MB, and an oral surgeon who needed it yesterday. Here's the whole workflow — export, zip, send — for every major machine.
