TITLE:
Exploring the useful exposure range limits of three intraoral image receptors for various tube potential, tube current and exposure time settings
AUTHORS:
Elli Katsoni, Ioannis A. Tsalafoutas, Panagiotis Gritzalis, Evripides Stefanou, Evangelos Georgiou, Emmanouel Yakoumakis
KEYWORDS:
Radiography, Dental, Digital; Dosage
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.3 No.5,
May
19,
2011
ABSTRACT: Objectives: To determine the useful exposure range limits of three intraoral image receptors of different technology when exposed to different X-ray beam spectra, dose and dose rate levels. Study Design: A dental X-ray unit offering a wide range of tube potential, tube current and exposure time settings was used to expose a dental quality control phantom. The receptors that were used to capture the radiographic images of the phantom were: the Kodak Insight, the Kodak RVG-6000 and the Duerr Vistascan system. The images that were produced over a wide range of exposure factor settings were evaluated in terms of diagnostic quality by three experienced radiologists. Results: The number of images with acceptable diagnostic quality was in total 1257; 310 with Insight, 331 with RVG 6000 and 616 with Vistascan. At 60 kV, diagnosable images were produced with doses ranging from 0.44-1.56 mGy for the Insight film 0.44-2.82 mGy for the RVG 6000 and 0.22-4.93 mGy for the Vistascan system. At 70 kV, the respective ranges were 0.39-1.28 mGy for the Insight film 0.31-2.55 mGy for the RVG6000 and 0.30-3.46 mGy for the Vistascan system. Conclusions: The Vistascan exhibited the widest useful exposure range and required the least exposure to produce a diagnosable image at almost all tube potential settings. The RVG 6000 exhibited a slightly wider useful exposure range than the Insight film, with almost the same dose requirements especially in higher Kv settings.