The invention relates to a method for creating a virtual dental image from a 3D volume (1) comprising volumetric image data. Firstly, a sub-volume (8, 12, 15, 18) of the 3D volume (1) is defined and then a virtual projection image (30, 41) is generated for said sub-volume (8, 12, 15, 18) from a specific X-ray imaging direction (11) by computation of the volumetric image data in said X-ray imaging direction (11).