Dental radiography equipment.

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Bob Russell — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 09:11:12 GMT

We don't have problems with our DR size 2. Not a problem doing two views, takes a few seconds! A luxury would be a smaller size for cats, can be a tight squeeze. Ain't going to happen!

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Rob Davis — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 19:57:55 GMT

[quote user="Peter Southerden"]I am fortunate to have all three and never use film and almost never use the CR system[/quote]

Now I feel sorry for your poor, unloved CR system.... perhaps, out of the kindness of my heart, I should offer to rehome it for you....

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Peter Southerden — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 10:53:04 GMT

Rob - I agree, try Dr and CR and film. I am fortunate to have all three and never use film and almost never use the CR system. I use a standard size 2 sensor in cats which works very well. You are correct that I can't fit a large dogs canine tooth on a size 2 sensor but in most cases I am most interested in the tooth root and alveolar bone which I can. If I need to x-ray the crown I take another view.

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Rob Davis — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 12:29:49 GMT

[quote user="Peter Southerden"]

I would certainly recommend a DR system. They are easy to use and give excellent and rapid results. Because of this you will take more X-rays which will better for your patients. I would suggest that you buy the sensor and x-ray machine from the same supplier as some sensors don't seem to give good results with certain x-ray machines. It is then important to invest in a days training so that you can learn to take good diagnostic images. If you would like more specific advice let me know.

[/quote]

While I bow to Peter's superior knowledge, when I do get around to upgrading to digital, I will almost certainly opt for CR. DR sensors do not come in size 4 which means you can't get a whole large canine on one picture, and having used both, I find the DR sensors rather bulky and more difficult to position especially in small cats' mouths. I think you need to try both before you buy, but don't be afraid of using film - it's very quick and easy.

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Peter Southerden — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 19:37:13 GMT

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Miriam Lodewyks — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 16:14:41 GMT

Click.

I get it. The old "dip n drip" method. Sorry I was a bit slow on that.

Don't the films eventually deteriorate in storage?

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Rob Davis — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 08:50:56 GMT

[quote user="GrooveJet"]I'm intreagued by the jamjars in a darkroom.... not quite sure what to make of that?[/quote]

Three jars - developer, fixer and water, just need to be large enough to fit a size 4 film in, very quick, easy and cheap. The developer seems to deteriorate more slowly if kept in the fridge when not in use.

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

James Laidlaw — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 08:17:45 GMT

I think they just mean some sort of container to hold fixer/rinse/developer so that you can manually expose films without using up large amounts of chemicals in a manual processor unit. Tiny pots for tiny films!

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Miriam Lodewyks — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 22:57:53 GMT

Thanks for the feedback. I'm intreagued by the jamjars in a darkroom.... not quite sure what to make of that?

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Bob Russell — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 17:10:57 GMT

How often does your competition take radiographs? I agree clients like to see the images. It is quite scarey how many 'sound' teeth are nothing of the sort and also how many dubious teeth are sound on X-ray!

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Suzanne Kelly — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 16:32:44 GMT

Go digital! We got our unit about 18 months ago and I do enough faffing trying to get bisecting angles etc without trying to develop the xrays too. I xray almost everything now and I know if I used film I wouldn't take anywhere near as many. Clients love seeing the images too, great for perceived value for money

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Rob Davis — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 14:40:46 GMT

We bought a new unit from Veterinary X-rays approx 3-4 years ago which cost around $1500 and has been brilliant. It paid for itself very quickly. We use kodak rapid chemicals in jam jars in the dark room - very easy and cheap, films ready in one minute. I generally have one nurse developing the films while I take them. We will be looking to go digital in the new future, but have been very happy with film.

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 11:39:52 GMT

we use an old ex human dentist unit works fine. we combine this with digital plates that we use in our normal idexx digital processor. its a bit fiddly as you have multiple tiny plates in one cassette that you take out and insert into a plastic envelope, take the radiograph then insert back into the cassette and run it through the unit. works well, bit of a compromise.

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Nicola Lawlor — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 11:17:25 GMT

I have loved using digital in that it allows me to repeat my films easily as I have been learning to position. Now I have more experience I get it right first time a lot more often, but for that reason alone it may be worth considering the extra expense. If I was faffing around with developing films it would be both time consuming and also expensive.

Can't advise re costs sorry - thankfully had a supportive boss when we wanted to move forwards with dental care.

Re: Dental radiography equipment.

Bob Russell — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 09:56:03 GMT

Second hand Siemens Dentotime. Ex dentists digital radiography unit (dentists do go broke!).

Wonderful and well worth the spend!

If you want an elderly automatic wet processor we have one in the loft that you can have for cost of P&P. Big and old but worked well up to moving digital! Also a table top hand developing tank that we had good results with.

The automatic processor was not worth the effort to set up each day for a handful of X-rays but both both work well if you have good eye-sight.

Talk to your X-ray people and whoever services your dental equipment. Dentists are often upgrading!

If you are willing to take a punt there are second hand units on ebay but get them properly checked out before use. Steer well clear of the cheap Chinese hand held units - some have been found to be really dangerous!

Should add that once we went digital we took a lot more X-rays!!