Quantitative Study of Positioning Errors in Digital Panoramic Radiographs: A Retrospective Study
Introduction: Panoramic radiography is an important performance in supplementing oral diagnosis. Proper position of the patient in the machine is crucial for a satisfactory image quality.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to measure the number of positioning errors in digital panoramic radiographs and to evaluate their image quality.
Materials and methods: Two thousand and ninety three digital panoramic radiographs, recorded at the Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology Clinic, Faculty of Dentistry, Chiang Mai University during February to April 2014 were collected. One calibrated observer evaluated the positioning errors and rated the image quality as Excellent,Diagnostically Acceptable or Unacceptable. The repeatability of assessment was re-examined using the kappa analysis. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22.0 for the descriptive analysis.
Results: One to five errors were found in each radiograph. The most common error was tongue position (69.2%) The second and the third most common involved chin placement: too low and too far forward 11.9% and 5.5% respectively. The most common coincidental errors (32.24%) were improper tongue and chin positioning. Image quality was ‘Excellent’ in 16.3% of images, ‘Diagnostically Acceptable’ in 81.7% and ‘Unacceptable’ in 2.0%.
Conclusions and Discussion: Proper tongue positioning is the main factor affecting the quality of panoramic radiographs. Solving this error would increase the percentage of excellent images.
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