A doctor of dental medicine (DMD) graduate from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Ghasaq Al-Bakkal is a family dentist at Belmontdentalclinic.ca. She attends to the patients and manages the office. To provide quality services at her practice, Ghasaq Al-Bakkal integrates technology, such as digital radiography, into her work to reduce the time a patient is exposed to radiation.
Digital radiography is an advanced x-ray inspection tool that instantly produces a radiographic image on a computer. During object examination, the data is captured on x-ray-sensitive plates and transferred immediately to the computer without using an intermediate cassette. Digital radiography uses flat panel detectors, considered superior to other types due to higher image quality, better signal-to-noise ratio, and higher sensitivity, making them ideal for radiographic applications.
The first working approach is direct conversion, where the x-ray photons are directly converted to electronic signals, amplified, and digitized after impacting a photoconductor like amorphous selenium. The direct approach produces sharper images than the indirect method as they do not have a scintillator. A scintillator is a material that exhibits luminescence properties when exposed to ionized particles.
Conversely, the indirect approach has a scintillator layer on the flat panels, which converts x-ray particles to visible light particles. An integrated photodiode matrix converts the light into an electrical charge and, subsequently, an image. As the conversion depends on the amount of light, the image quality may vary, thus lacking the sharpness of a direct approach.
Digital radiography is an advanced x-ray inspection tool that instantly produces a radiographic image on a computer. During object examination, the data is captured on x-ray-sensitive plates and transferred immediately to the computer without using an intermediate cassette. Digital radiography uses flat panel detectors, considered superior to other types due to higher image quality, better signal-to-noise ratio, and higher sensitivity, making them ideal for radiographic applications.
The first working approach is direct conversion, where the x-ray photons are directly converted to electronic signals, amplified, and digitized after impacting a photoconductor like amorphous selenium. The direct approach produces sharper images than the indirect method as they do not have a scintillator. A scintillator is a material that exhibits luminescence properties when exposed to ionized particles.
Conversely, the indirect approach has a scintillator layer on the flat panels, which converts x-ray particles to visible light particles. An integrated photodiode matrix converts the light into an electrical charge and, subsequently, an image. As the conversion depends on the amount of light, the image quality may vary, thus lacking the sharpness of a direct approach.