Dental radiography advice required

Re: Dental radiography advice required

Bob Russell — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 14:29:51 GMT

There are very cheap hand held units on ebay. Do NOT be tempted to buy one!

The outputs can be wildly high and scattered so not safe for patient or operator.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20579318

We have an elderly Siemens dentotime that has been with us for a decade. Gives great results, cost very little and passes all its safety checks with flying colours, year after year!

Not from ebay but they do show up from time to time but as always buyer beware. Check with whoever services your dental machine. They often hear about dentist upgrading equipment.

Re: Dental radiography advice required

Glenn Hodgson — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 23:43:18 GMT

thanks folks.

ill disgest the above and get back if any morw questions.

Re: Dental radiography advice required

Andrew Henfrey — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 17:34:35 GMT

I've just bought Blackwell’s Five–Minute Veterinary Consult Clinical Companion: Small Animal Dentistry. It has some really good photos of dental plate positioning and seems a really good concise textbook- but I'm not a vet dentist!

Re: Dental radiography advice required

Rob Davis — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 17:03:30 GMT

[quote user="Glenn Hodgson"]I think we need a dental x-ray head. Are most second hand ones ok? We have been offered a siemens one for around £600.[/quote]

Definitely purchase a dental x-ray machine - you will find it so much quicker and easier. I bought a second hand one initially which didn't work (long story...), so ended up buying a new one for around $1500. It paid for itself in weeks.

[quote user="Glenn Hodgson"]Pricing structure.[/quote]

We charge around $10+VAT per exposure, or £40-60 for full mouth radiography. Don't overprice it or you won't take as many radiographs as you should. By taking radiographs you will identify all sorts of things you would previously have missed, so they will already be generating more work.

[quote user="Glenn Hodgson"]On a practical basis how do I set this up in the clinic?[/quote]

Either wall or ceiling mounted machines are tidy and convenient, but less flexible. I often use our machine to x-ray feet, small furries etc so portability is useful.

[quote user="Glenn Hodgson"]Practically how do I place the small plates in the mouth?[/quote]

Same as with film. You need to get to grips with the bisecting angle technique - it's not difficult but does require a little practice to start with. I would highly recommend the dental radiography book by Greg Dupont (Atlas of small animal dental radiology or similar) - excellent photographs of skull beside the x-rays and CT scans showing you exactly which structures you are looking at. There is also a good section on positioning.

There's this: http://www.rvc.ac.uk/Review/Dentistry/Radiography/intro.html which may be useful. Otherwise I believe BVDA occasionally do radiology courses (I'm sure Evelyn will let you know).

Hope some of that's helpful, feel free to PM me if you like.