Year: 2011

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Digital radiography: Detector Sensitivity

This last post on digital radiography is on detector sensitivity.  This is probably the most talked about characteristic of digital radiography when the systems are being hyped.  Detector sensitivity is the ability of the sensor/phosphor plate to respond to small amounts of radiation.  There is no term used to measure…
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Case of the Week: Nasopalatine Canal Cyst

This week I have a case of a nasopalatine canal cyst.  This is also referred to as an incisive canal cyst and/or a nasopalatine duct cyst.  This case was found on a pantomograph of an edentulous patient.  The patient presented for complete dentures and was asymptomatic.  There is a well-defined…
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Digital radiography: Detector Latitude

This weeks topic on digital radiography is detector latitude.  Detector latitude is the ability of a receptor to capture a range of x ray exposures.  The term used to describe this is magnitude.  Analog film has a large range of magnitudes from 0.5 to 4, however, only under bright illumination…
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Case of the Week: Dentigerous cyst

This week is a case of a quite large dentigerous cyst.  A dentigerous cyst will appear radiolucent surrounding the crown of an impacted tooth.  The teeth most commonly effected are the maxillary canines and third molars (both maxilla and mandible).  A pathognomonic sign of a dentigerous cyst is that the…
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Digital radiography: Spatial resolution

This weeks topic on digital radiography is spatial resolution.  Spatial resolution is the capacity for distinguishing fine detail in an image.  The term used to identify this is line pairs per millimeter (lp/mm).  The higher the spatial resolution, the greater the capacity for distinguishing fine detail.  An average observer is…