Radiographic exams – Page 4

3 min read 0

X is for x ray: Image sharpness

Today I’m onto image sharpness. There are three different characteristics we will be looking at; target size, film composition and patient movement. Target size The target size is just that, the target size in an x ray unit. This is fixed by the manufacturer and cannot be changed by the…

3 min read 0

X is for x ray: Image magnification

I gave a lecture recently for the dental hygiene students reviewing for their dental hygiene written boards (NBDHE) and it gave me some ideas for topic posts. So for the next 4 posts I will be talking about x rays, image magnification, image distortion, PID length, etc. The students told…

2 min read 0

Radiographic Technique: Patient preparation

I thought I’d end this short series on radiographic technique dealing with a more humorous aspect of the radiographs I see. This has to do with proper patient preparation. Patient preparation is the removal of metal, partials or complete dentures from the path of the x ray beam. As a…

2 min read 0

Radiographic Technique: Central Ray Entry

What is central ray entry? Central ray entry is where the PID/cone is centered on the patient. While this may seem to be the easiest thing to do, central ray entry errors are very common. There really is only one central ray entry error and that is when the PID…

3 min read 4

Radiographic Technique: Vertical Angle

What is vertical angle? Vertical angle refers to the position the Position Indicating Device (PID or cone) is along the coronal and/or sagittal planes. A zero degree vertical angle is when the PID is positioned parallel with the axial plane. A positive vertical angle is when the source of radiation…