Digital X-ray Sensor Repair Process

How do I send my sensor in to you?

The process is super simple and quick.  Click here to be directed to our submission form.  Be sure to input all of the information that the form requests.  Once you click the “Submit” button after filling out the form you will be emailed a copy.  Print out a copy of the submission form email that you receive and mail your sensor, calibration file, interface box, and printed copy of your submission form to:

Sodium Dental
14 Barnhart Dr
Suite A
Hanover, PA 17331

Where can I find my calibration file so I can make sure to send it with my sensor?

Your sensor should have come with a calibration disc (Cd) when you originally purchased your sensor.  If you still have that disc then please ship it with your sensor.  We understand that the original purchase could have been a long time ago and things get lost!  If you don’t have your original calibration disc then please visit our resource page here.  It will guide you through the process of emailing your dental x-ray sensor calibration files to us.  A Sodium Dental remote support technician is also available to login to your system remotely to retrieve the calibration file for you.

Will you notify me once my digital x-ray sensor is delivered to your facility?

Once your x-ray sensor is received in our office for repair we will send you an email right away to let you know we’ve received the package.

How long will it take for me to receive an estimate for repair?

You will receive an estimate for your x-ray sensor repair within 24 – 48 hours of us receiving your package.

What do I have to do to approve the repair once I receive my estimate?

When we send you your estimate we will provide you with an authorization form and a copy of the warranty paperwork.  Please fill out the authorization form in its entirety and fax it back to us at 1-866-611-0677. If you prefer to pay via our website or PayPal invoice just let us know and we will provide the payment link.  We also accept ACH transfer and can even set you up with a payment plan!

How long does the digital x-ray sensor repair take?

All sensors are immediately put into our repair queue as soon as we receive your authorization form via fax.  This is why it is important that you fill out the authorization form in its entirety and fax it back to us as soon as you possibly can.  The faster you fax us your authorization form, the faster we can get your sensor repaired and shipped back to you.

That being said, we give a general estimate of 5 – 10 business days for repair due to the fluctuating repair queue however for most digital x-ray sensor repairs we have the sensor repaired and on its way back to you in less than 3 business days from receipt of your authorization form.  Expedited repairs are possible for a small fee if requested.

Why do you need one of my interface boxes when it is the sensor that I need repaired?

We need your x-ray sensor interface box for two reasons.  1. You might have a sensor that we do not have an interface for and 2. the issues that you’re experiencing could very well be an issue with your interface box and NOT your digital x-ray sensor.  Please note that if you do not send an interface with your sensor it could delay in the processing of your repair.

What shipping options to you offer for digital x-ray sensor repair?

Due to the high volume of sensors that we receive every day and how important it is for us to get them turned around and shipped as quickly as possible we are currently only able to offer the following shipping options:

  • USPS Express shipping (1 – 2 day)
  • UPS Overnight (1 day)
  • USPS Express International (3 – 5 day)

What if I receive my estimate and do not want to have my sensor repaired?

Simple, just call or send us an email stating that you do not want the repair completed and an account manager will be in touch quickly to discuss return options.

What shipping method do you use? Will my sensor be insured?

We use USPS Express shipping for all dental sensor repairs.  Insurance is not included but can be requested for an additional fee.  We ship every package with a tracking number so you will always be able to track your sensors progress during shipping.

What dental x-ray sensors do you repair?

We are able to fix ALL x-ray sensors. Our dental sensor repair technicians have been repairing x-ray sensors since 2011 and have experience working with every single sensor on the market. This includes Dexis, Kodak, Gendex, Schick, Image Ray, Camsight, Trophy, and many others.

I am located outside of the U.S., can I send my Kodak dental sensor to you for repair?

Absolutely! We have repaired dental x-ray sensors for practices all around the world.  We have repaired sensors for doctors from Greece, Italy, France, Germany, Australia, and many other countries around the world! We suggest giving us a call, 1-800-821-8962, for assistance on the best method for shipping internationally to our facility.

Do you provide discounts on repairs if I send multiple sensors in at a time?

Generally, no. However discounts are handled on a case by case basis. If you are an equipment rep, or other professional in the dental industry please send an email to sales@sodiumsystems.com

I own a dental repair company, insurance company, etc… Do you provide pricing or exclusive agreements for resellers?

Yes! Please send an email to sales@sodiumdental.com for more information.

Do you sell refurbished digital x-ray sensors?

Yes! Check out our refurbished product page at this link.  Or give us a call at 1-800-821-8962 to make find out more!

Do you purchase broken, unwanted, or used digital x-ray sensors?

Yes! Please email sales@sodiumsystems.com with your practice information and the sensor(s) that you are interested in selling.  We may also be able to offer a purchase amount if you decide you do not want to repair your sensor.

Should I use aftermarket sensor cable protectors to protect my sensor cable?

We do not recommend the use of any product marketed as “cable protectors”. “Cable protectors” are generally made of a heavy duty vinyl or plastic tubing, these “protectors” cause excessive stress on the sensor cable, connector, and sensor head. The best way to protect your sensor and its cable is by utilizing the appropriate sensor holders and barrier sheaths.

Are you able to repair my Kodak x-ray sensor?

Yes! Our sensor repair technicians have been trained in the repair process of various brands of dental sensors and only dental sensors. We’ve repaired thousands of sensors for doctors, military branches, insurance companies, and repair companies all around the world. If our guys can’t fix it, no one can.

If you are not able to repair my sensor will I be charged anything?

Our diagnostics and estimate process is free.

If your sensor is not repairable or you choose to decline the repair we do ask that you pay for the return Shipping and Handling to have your sensor returned to you. We also offer a reassembly service if you’d like your broken sensor reassembled prior to us shipping it back.

Disposal and recycling is absolutely free.

Will I get an estimate before you repair my sensor?

Absolutely! Before we move forward with repairing your dental x-ray sensor we will email you an estimate and an authorization form. Our technician will not move forward with the repair until you authorize it.

Do you actually repair dental x-ray sensors or are you a re-seller?

Sodium Dental is an actual repair lab which focuses specifically and strictly on Dental X-Ray Sensors of all models including but not limited to Kodak, Gendex, Schick, and Dexis dental sensors.

Many companies on the internet offer dental sensor repair but most of them are either authorized re-sellers of our services or companies that claim to fix sensors when in reality they outsource their repairs.  When contacting a company regarding sensor repair, make sure you call them and ask them if they actually repair your sensor or if they source their repairs with a different company.  If they say they do repair x-ray sensors, ask them what their turn around time is.  Anything over 5 business days should be a red flag.

Digital X-ray Sensor Repair Warranty

When and how do we notify you of warranty coverage?

With your estimate you will receive a digital copy of our warranty policy.  A printed hard copy will also be included with your repaired sensor when it ships to you.

How I send my sensor to Sodium for warranty work?

Sodium Dental provides remote support for any of our repaired sensors that are still within the warranty coverage period.  You will need to contact a Sodium Dental support representative by calling 1-800-821-8962 or sending us an email support@sodiumdental.com

A support representative will work with you remotely to troubleshoot the issue you are having.  If it is determined that the sensor needs to be sent to Sodium Dental for further evaluation you will be issued an RMA# and further directions.

What does the repair warranty cover?

The sensor repair warranty covers possible defects in the repair only. The sensor repair warranty does not cover physical damage or obvious misuse. We include sensor care guides with each of the sensors we repair. Please refer to the full sensor repair warranty for full details on what is and is not covered.

Does Sodium give discounts to out of warranty customers?

Yes.  We offer a prorated repair fee to our out of warranty customers.  This prorated fee will apply to sensor repairs that are outside of the warranty coverage period or have been damaged to the point of voiding the warranty coverage.  Please refer to the sensor repair document included with your repaired sensor for full details on coverage.

How do refunds work?

Refunds will be handled on a case by case basis. Sensor repairs that are having an issue must first go through the RMA process.  Please refer to sensor repair warranty documentation for full details.

Common Sensor Issues

Broken sensor issues

  • pre-triggering
  • no response to radiation
  • distorted images
  • bad synchronization file (Kodak / Carestream sensors)
  • No Calibration File
  • Exposed wires
  • broken USB connector
  • sensor head casing open or separating
  • System does not acquire x-ray images
  • After triggering the x-rays, no image is displayed
  • The image is pale and grainy
  • The image is too dark
  • The image is blurred
  • The image is white
  • Unable to use the intra oral x-ray sensor
  • unable to print x-rays from computer
  • Network share is unavailable
  • intermittently unable to use the intra-oral x-ray sensor
  • Referring dentist unable to view x-ray images with their imaging software

Gendex Error Codes:

  • Error code: E300 USB cable disconnected; Action: Verify USB Cable (gendex)
  • Error Code: E501 Insufficient USB Power Supply (gendex)
  • No Code: Local User have not writing rights on Vixcfg directory (gendex)
  • Error Code : E103 Voltages out of range
  • Error code: E400 FW download error
  • Error code: E401 EPROM Error
  • Error Code: E402 EPROM data corrupted
  • Error code: E403 Sensor data read error
  • Error code: E404 HW initialization error
  • Error code: E405 HW recognizing error
  • Error code: E406 HW test error
  • Error code: E407 EEPROM read error
  • Error code: E408 & E409 Memory test error
  • Error code: E874 Insufficient memory
  • Error code: E875 Insufficient Lock Memory
  • Error code: E3002 Memory Transfer error
  • Error code: V999 Language dll missing
  • Error code: E420 ValueT A/D error

Kodak / Carestream issues

  • Intra oral camera image not appearing on monitor.  Instead, I have blue screen in the Trophy patient window.
  • Unable to save any Trophy patient information.
  • unable to receive Trophy TIF image as email attachment
  • When the sensor is plugged into the hub, a window pops up saying new RVG6 hardware has been detected that requires a new driver
  • The RVG acquisition sensor icon remains grey
  • Not able to launch the Trophypan software.  Error displayed: “Panoramic Error – Cannot open serial link”

Dexis Error Codes

  • – Data acquisition hardware not available…
  • Getting Honeycomb pattern on X-Rays when using certain Dexis sensors. This can be caused by using the incorrect correction files.
  • Some images appear fuzzy on my computer screen. Make sure you have the correct monitor settings.
    • Patient Data-File Not Found
  • This is likely caused by an incorrect data path to the network data store.
  • Sensor Hardware Not Connected

General FAQs

Can an Electronic Signature Be Forged?

Did you know that a Topaz signature pad does much more than just capture a signature?

Signature pads are becoming more and more common in dental practices, especially due to the Electronic Records Mandate that is soon to come.  I was posed with an interesting question today that I had never before thought to ask, “If a signature is combated, how would one determine whether an electronic signature is a forgery since it is simply an electronic representation of a person’s signature and not physically in ink on a piece of paper?”

Ever since America was established there have been people forging signatures and because of this there have been forensic document examiners analyzing these signatures to determine a forgery from a legit signature.  According to Mr William J. Flynn, B.S., D-ABFDE, forensic document examiners across the US have had to continually adapt their analysis techniques over the years due to new technology in ink pens.  Prior to the 1940’s the way one would write was via fountain pen or the good old Eagle feather, in 1945 the ball point pen was adapted as the writing instrument of choice.  The fountain pen provided very specific characteristics to a person’s signature such as a writing line with specific shading caused by the flexing of the fountain pens tip of which a ball point pen does not have and now in the 2000′s we face the advent of electronic signatures.

Topaz Systems Inc has been working with Mr William J. Flynn to produce signature pads that have the ability to record much more information about a person’s signature than simply the visual aspect.  Mr William J. Flynn, “the Topaz software [presents in a unique and patent pending way the segment timing, speed of signature data and] … the exact sequence of movements made by the author during the original signature execution.”

What this means is that the Topaz software is able to record all of these movements and time stamps, decipher, analyze, and generate a report for a forensic document examiner to use in determining the authenticity of a signature.  A forged signature is usually created by either tracing an existing signature or simply trying to re-create the signature by memory.  Either way, the characteristics of a forged signature is either “accurate and slow or fast but inaccurate”.  The Topaz software is able to record the time that it takes someone to write their signature which means that a side by side comparison of a legit signature and a forgery will be quick and simple because the signature will either appear visually correct but the time stamp slower or the time stamp will be correct but the signature will be completely visually inaccurate.

Of course the speed at which someone generates a signature is not the only characteristic considered when analyzing possible forgeries.  Some other items include the accurate representation of the writing shapes, sizes, connecting strokes, and proportions of the original signature.  All of these things are recorded by a Topaz signature pad and is retrievable for a forensic examiner if the need ever arises.

To know that the Topaz signature pads are able to provide this type of security to a dental practice is very relieving.  I can suggest Topaz signature pads to all of my dentists with full confidence that they are protected from people providing false information in the form of a signature.

Should I have a remote backup solution?

A dental practice should have 3 modes of backing up their data at any given time.  To thoroughly protect your office information there should be a dedicated NAS device that houses daily backups, 2 USB hard drives that receive a backup daily (one should be off-site at all times creating a daily rotation), and a remote back up offsite.

*You can view our previous post about backing up your data here.

A remote back up solution is intended as a fail safe for your precious patient data.  Worst case scenario: your practice suffers a building fire and your NAS and USB back up drives are destroyed in the blaze and when you try to recover the data from your take home hard drive you find that the data is corrupt.  The only way to bring back your data is if you have a remote back up solution held off-site.

This may sound like a crazy scenario that would never happen but I can assure you that we have actually had a practice that unfortunately burned down and the only way they were able to re-open their practice was because they had a daily remote back up in place.

We recommend for all of our practices to go with I-Backup as their remote off-site backup.  I-Backup is an easy to use remote back up solution that offers the support of a large database for a very inexpensive price.  I-Backup also offers the service of shipping a physical hard drive to your practice for the initial database backup among many other additional services.

A typical dental practice can have anywhere from 30GB to 200GB of data that needs to be backed up, doing this over an online connection is nearly impossible due to the lack of upload speeds that a dental practice has with their local internet service provider.  A solution to this problem is I-Backup’s “Ready Drive” service where they will ship your practice a physical hard drive that you in turn transfer all of your data to, once your data is transferred you then ship the hard drive back to I-Backup and they in turn transfer the data to their backup servers.  Once the transfer to their servers is complete the I-Backup software will be able to run daily incremental backups to the I-Backup servers further protecting your data.

Once your I-Backup software is configured you are then able to set notification emails within the software which will send you daily email notifications about your successful backups and, more importantly, any unsuccessful backups.  This allows you to stay on top of any errors with your data backup further building your confidence in the integrity of your nightly data backups.

*For an online demo of the I-Backup software scroll to the bottom of this post.

A quick summary of the I-Backup Service:

  • Our network consistently performs 25-30% faster on backup / restore than comparable services
  • All data is held on their privately owned and operated network
  • All data is compressed and encrypted during transmission (128-bit SSL) with optional encryption on storage (256-bit proprietary) for further protection
  • Block-level incremental backups / restores use minimal bandwidth, optional automatic bandwidth throttling
  • 10 days of Snapshots held at no additional charge
  • Share files and folders too large to send through email
  • Remotely manage backup set / schedule from any web browser
  • Supports open and locked files backup for most common applications
  • Advanced server functionality includes System State, SQL, Exchange, Oracle and SharePoint backup
  • Access I-Backup as a network-attached drive for drag-and-drop access

I-Backup is FLEXIBLE

  • Create multiple backup / restore sets and schedules
  • Backup Windows, Mac and linux to the same account
  • I-Backup for iPhone provides quick and easy mobile access
  • No per computer fees or licenses makes I-Backup ultimately scale-able
  • Use I-Backup to create an archive of backups for as long as needed

I-Backup is DISASTER RECOVERY

  • Immediate and anytime access to all files via IBackup.com
  • Rapid Serve program to physically ship large backups / restores too large to transfer over the network in a reasonable amount of time
  • Phone support available from 6am to 6pm PST, Monday through Friday
  • Live chat and email support available 24x7x365
  • I-Backup Software Demo

Why Should You Go Digital In Your Practice?

I frequent the dental town message boards and was posed an interesting question after asking one myself.  A Dr had mentioned that he has the digital over film discussion  a lot and that he couldn’t justify spending the money to outfit his practice since he didn’t think he would see a return on it.  So I informed him that with our technology solution and staff training our doctors see a production increase of at least 15% within their practice and that the practices are able to cover the cost of equipment with the percentage increase.

Of course he rebutted with, “What jumps out at me immediately is “every practice that my company has transformed to digital has seen a minimum of 15% production increase”  Certainly a 15 % increase would cover   an investment in digital.  I don’t understand how digital x-rays would result in any increase in productivity.  How do you figure?”

Here is my answer to that question.

Please keep in mind that the production increase is based on our offices that have a full technology solution outfitted in their practice including PCs in every operatory, 12 o’clock monitors, patient monitors, digital x-ray sensors, and intra oral cameras.

All of this technology in conjunction with our on-site staff training will assist you in increasing your production a number of different ways.

From Film to Digital:

Film in itself is time consuming.  Although it may only take a few minutes to develop an x-ray and those mere minutes seem minute and insignificant, how much are they really costing you?  Let’s say film takes 5 minutes per patient to process the x-rays and have them in your hands for diagnosis and let’s say that you take film on 5 patients per day.  This equates to 25 minutes per day, for a 5 day work week that’s 125 minutes or nearly 2 hours of your time spent on film x-rays alone every week.  That 2 hours per week that you’re spending on film could be replaced with 2 new patients per week.

Add to this the cost of film itself, chemicals to develop the film, staff time to process the film (don’t forget, employees get paid by the hour), and the time spent travelling the film around your office and into your hands; you can quickly see where you can reallocate this wasted time to more productive things than simply processing film x-rays.

Money costs aside think about how much more convenient it would be to view x-rays immediately after their taken by looking at them in the privacy of your office or at a central office PC (or any PC in the office).  As an added bonus you can even view a patients x-rays, chart, and intra oral images from home!

Advantages of Digital Intra Oral Imaging:

Personally, I feel like this is fairly obvious.  Let’s be honest, we’re all sales people here.  I am more of a tech guy than a sales person but I wouldn’t be able to make a living if I didn’t sell my services or product.  Although I do sell products, part of my vision with Sodium Systems is providing practices with a solution that provides them the ability to offer superior diagnostic capabilities and dental care while increasing their production (the two kind of go hand in hand).

My point here is that having intra oral cameras, digital radiography, and a dedicated patient monitor allows you to provide visual cues for everything that you are trying to offer your patients.  Your patient may have an amalgam with leaky margin, you as a dentist can of course see that material is getting under the amalgam, causing decay and is creating a cavity which would need to be removed, drilled out, and replaced… but can your patient see this?  To a patient looking in a mirror their filling looks fine, why would they be compelled to have you replace it?

By utilizing an intra oral camera and a patient monitor you are able to physically and immediately show your patient exactly what you are seeing.  With the magnification of the IO camera you can very clearly show any patient what a failing filling looks like and why it should be replaced as soon as possible.  What would your patient acceptance be if you were able to provide immediate imagery for your patients to better understand the problems occurring in their mouth?

Theorists say that more than 60% of the population are visual learners, needing a visual stimuli to truly grasp what is being taught to them.  With this theory in mind it’s easy to see why a lot of patients in practices without technology are reluctant to have work done right away or at all.  Dentistry before technology consisted of paper charts and film x-ray and a Dr who then processed the information and gathered and verbally presented the problems and solutions to the patient.  By only verbally communicating these things a door is open to the patient to decide in their mind that the work might not be important to have done that day or at all (out of site, out of mind kind of thing).  With intra oral imaging their problem areas are plastered on a giant TV monitor where all of the little nooks and cranny’s of their teeth are exposed for them to see and process within their minds.  If you show anyone a decaying tooth under an IO magnification I can almost guarantee you they will be impulsed to do something about it immediately rather than wait till the next time around.

I don’t see my question here, how can I get in touch with you?

Feel free to call us at 1-800-821-8962, email us at support@sodiumdental.com or send us a note by visiting our Contact Us page