Dental X-ray Image Quality: Tube Head Distance Test

Repaired Schick Xray Sensor Distance

Repaired Schick Xray Sensor Distance Progression

Proper training and use of a digital x-ray sensor and tube head is crucial for your staff to obtain high quality, diagnostic images for you with every patient.  Several factors will have a direct and immediate impact on the quality of your x-ray images and today we go over distance of tube head to patient.  Distance of tube head to patient is something that will have an exponential impact on x-ray image quality.

In today’s experiment we use a repaired Schick CDR digital x-ray sensor to determine just how much dead space between a tube head cone and patient can actually effect image quality.

The distance between the repaired Schick CDR digital x-ray sensor face plate and testing skull stayed constant.  The Owandy tubehead is the only device that was moved during this test.

Below, we outline image quality degradation based on 1 inch incremental changes of tube head cone to the repaired Schick CDR digital x-ray sensor and our “patient’s” cheek.

Specifics of Dental X-ray Image Quality Distance Test:

• Tube Head: Owandy Rx tube head w/ Wireless Controller & Long Cone
• Digital X-ray Sensor: Repaired Schick CDR Sensor w/ Remote HS Interface
• Imaging Software: Apteryx XrayVision
• Workstation: Windows 7 64bit
• Test Subject: 3M Human Half Skull set in resin
• Exposure Settings: 0.08 s | 0.51 mGy | 65 kV

Our repaired Schick x-ray sensor, test subject, and exposure settings all stayed exactly the same for all 5 image quality test images.  For each test image we moved the tube head so that the end of the cone moved one additional inch between each exposure.

Tube head positioning includes:

Directly on Cheek | 1″ dead space | 2″ dead space | 3″ dead space | 4″ dead space

Click for Larger Version of the Dental X-ray Image Quality Test

Using the specifications above for our image quality distance test we’ve found that image quality degrades significantly with only a small amount of empty space between the tube head cone and the repaired Schick CDR digital x-ray sensor.  It is very clear that the best placement for an x-ray tube head when taking a patients digital x-ray is as close to the patient’s cheek as possible.  This ensures that your staff can take the best diagnostic image possible at the lowest radiation exposure settings possible.

For every inch of dead space the exposure settings would need to be increased accordingly to achieve the same quality image as if the tube head cone was directly against the patients cheek.  A quality ring and bar style sensor holder can help ensure your staff are taking the best quality images possible.

Sodium Dental can provide on site staff training to ensure that your staff are generating the highest quality images possible in your practice.  Contact us today 1-800-821-8962