How Much It Really Costs to Burn a CD to Deliver a CBCT Scan

The CD Looks Cheap. It Isn't.

If your imaging center still delivers CBCT scans on CD, you probably think each delivery costs whatever you paid for the disc. That math is wrong. The real cost per CD-delivered study runs between $3.00 and $5.00 USD, and most centers never measure it. Let's break down the number.

The 5 Components of the Real Cost

1. Direct consumables

A decent-brand blank DVD-R bought in bulk costs $0.35 to $0.60 today. Add the printed sleeve (paper, ink, and print time), the envelope or plastic case, and the adhesive label if you use one. Average: $0.90 per delivery.

2. Technologist time

Burning a CBCT isn't instant. Exporting the study from the scanner console, burning the disc with the viewer (DICOM + Windows executable), verifying the disc boots, and labeling it takes 5 to 8 minutes of effective time. If your technologist earns around $24/hour, that minute costs about $0.40. Per delivery: $2.00 to $3.20.

3. Front-desk delivery time

Someone hands the disc to the patient or courier. That's 2 to 4 additional minutes between finding the envelope, confirming the patient's name, and logging the delivery. $1.00 average.

4. Redeliveries and missed calls

This is where the math breaks. In centers we surveyed, between 8% and 15% of CDs require a redelivery: the patient lost it, the dentist couldn't open it on a Mac, the viewer won't run on Windows 11, the disc got scratched. Each redelivery repeats the costs above plus the time to handle the call (5 to 10 minutes). Amortized across all studies, that adds $1.50 to $2.80 per delivery.

5. Invisible opportunity cost

Every minute your technologist spends burning CDs is a minute they're not acquiring a new study. If your center does 8 CBCT scans a day at $150 each and burning CDs eats up an hour of the technologist's day, that bottleneck is costing you real capacity.

The Final Number

Add it all up, and an average dental imaging center spends between $3.50 and $5.50 per CBCT delivered on CD. If you run 200 studies a month, that's $700 to $1,100 a month evaporating without ever showing up on a P&L. Annually, that's close to $10,000 for a mid-sized center.

Compare It to Digital Delivery

An online DICOM viewer platform costs between $40 and $120 a month per center, with no study limit. Marginal cost per delivery drops to nearly zero. Technologist time drops to 30 seconds — one upload. Redeliveries are a click. A patient never loses a text-message link the way they lose a CD.

The Argument That Isn't About Cost

What's really expensive about the CD is the friction with the referring dentist. Every time a dentist receives your CD and can't open it, they associate your center with a bad moment in their day. When there's another imaging center nearby that delivers by link, that friction translates into lost referrals. It never shows up on a spreadsheet, but it's the most expensive part of the CD.

How to Run This Exercise at Your Own Center

1. Count how many CDs you burned last month.
2. Multiply by $3.50 (the low end of the range).
3. Add the estimated redelivery percentage multiplied by 2.
4. Compare that to any online DICOM viewer plan.

ROI is usually immediate starting in month two. The switch tends to justify itself.

If you want to see what link-based delivery looks like for your center, you can try CBCTHub free and upload your first studies in under five minutes.