The purpose of this study was comparision of conventional tomography with reformatted computed tomography for dental implant in locating the mandibular canal. Five dogs were used and after conventional tomographs and reformatted computed tomographs were taken, four dentist traced all films. Mandibles were sectioned with 2mm slice thickness and the sections were then radiographed(contact radiography). Each radiographic image was traced and linear measurements were made from mandibular canal to alveolar crest, buccal cortex, lingual cortex, and inferior border. Following results were acquired : 1. Reformatted computed tomographs were exacter than conventional tomography by alveolar crest to canal length of -0.6mm difference between real values and radiographs. 2. The average measurements of buccal cortex to mandibular canal width and lingual cortex to mandibular canal width of conventional tomographs were exacter than reformatted computed tomographs, but standard deviations were higher than reformatted computed tomographs. 3. Standard deviations of reformatted computed tomographs were lower than conventional tomographs at all comparing sites 4. At reformatted computed tomography 62.5％ of the measurements performed were within. : filmm of the true value, and at conventional tomography 24.1％ were. 5. Mandibular canal invisibiity was 0.8％ at reformatted computed tomography and 9.2％ at conventional tomography. Reformatted computed tomography has been shown to be more useful radiographic technique for assessment of the mandibular canal than conventional tomography.