Panoramic dental x-ray technique

This article is professionally consulted by Master, Doctor Vu Thi Hau - Radiologist - Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Nuclear Medicine - Vinmec Times City International General Hospital. The doctor has many years of experience in the field of diagnostic imaging including magnetic resonance, CT and ultrasound.

The technique of panoramic dental x-ray shows the entire image of the two upper and lower teeth and the adjacent structures of the maxillary bone, mandibular bone, and temporomandibular joint on both sides of the jaw. Through that image, the dentist can examine injuries, dental diseases, and facial arches such as protruding jaw problems, broken jawbone, misaligned wisdom teeth, and detect tumors. ..

Panoramic dental x-ray based on the principle of classical tomography with the x-ray beam passing through a narrow slit allows to clearly see the images of components located in the cutting surface, the outer components will be blurred. Go. X-ray and film will move in opposite directions, rotating once around the patient's mandible for 12-14 seconds during each scan.
With the technique of panoramic dental x-ray imaging, it brings outstanding advantages in the diagnosis and treatment of dental diseases as follows:
Dental x-ray records the entire section of the jaw and jawbone. teeth, gum tissue, temporomandibular joints with sharp, high-resolution image quality. This helps the doctor to clearly see the structure of the pulp chamber, the length of the canal, the vascular system, the nerves, in order to accurately detect the abnormal symptoms of the jawbone, bite or protrusion. . In addition, it is also possible to quickly detect common problems such as tooth decay, misaligned wisdom teeth, periodontitis, gingivitis ... The amount of X-rays from the panoramic dental x-ray machine is small, safe with All ages Dental X-ray images are stored on a computer system, which is an important source of data for diagnosis, re-examination, assessment of treatment effectiveness and disease progression during treatment X-ray techniques Panoramic dentition has no absolute contraindications, but there are relative contraindications for pregnant women.

2.1 Preparation The person performing the full-branch x-ray is a specialist doctor or an radiologist. Facilities such as specialized x-ray machines, film, film printers, storage systems need to be fully prepared before implementation.
Patients take panoramic dental x-ray according to instructions, cooperate to take pictures in standing or sitting position and remove metal objects on the head, face and neck area before taking pictures.
2.2 Procedure Start the camera by inserting the cassette in the center of the film box, select the shooting parameters (mA, kV, shooting time) to suit the patient, usually in the range of 60-70kV, 10mA in 12-14 second). Instruct the patient to stand or sit with the back straight, face symmetrically through the mid-sagittal plane, not too bent, not too supine so that the plane passing through the line of the ear canal - the lower border of the orbit is parallel to the floor. The patient cut the vibrato in the right position on the concave groove on the bite bar and placed the tongue against the hard palate and remained motionless during the panoramic x-ray of the teeth. Place the central ray in a localized position about 1cm in front of the pinna, directed perpendicular to the curvature of the mandible, sinking the ray moving continuously and in the opposite direction compared to the film taken along a certain axis during rotation. ray generator. The technician enters the control room, press and hold the beam button to take the film according to the selected parameters. At the end, instruct the patient to leave the filming and printing position.

2.3 Evaluation of the results The panoramic dental x-ray film needs to clearly see the entire upper and lower dental arches as well as the related jawbone structures. The film mainly evaluates the number and morphology of the dental arch in overall correlation with the jawbone. The doctor reads the lesions, describes them on a connected computer, prints the data and can provide professional advice to the patient and family if required. In the process of taking panoramic dental x-rays, there may be some errors when performing the technique when the patient does not have the correct shooting position such as biting in the wrong position, head bowed or tilted too much, put the tongue in the wrong position, no Holding still while taking the picture will cause poor quality images, affecting the diagnosis.