IMAGE QUALITY OF INTRAORAL RADIOGRAPHS USED BY GENERAL-PRACTITIONERS IN PROSTHODONTIC TREATMENT PLANNING

A number of studies have shown a low standard of radiographic image qu ality in general dental practices. Image quality was evaluated on 1094 radiographs from 100 consecutive cases submitted to a dental insuranc e office for approval of planned prosthodontic treatment. It was found that only 404 radiographs were without any type of error and that 690 radiographs had a total of 959 errors. The most common errors were pr ojection and film density errors. The number of submitted radiographs ranged from one to 40. Nearly every fourth tooth proposed for treatmen t was not properly documented. The results also showed that 43 of 100 cases did not meet the criteria for acceptance for assessment of the p roposed prosthodontic treatment. This means that they were incompletel y documented radiographically so that the treatment plan could not be evaluated. This study suggests that new or additional radiographic doc umentation ought to be requested frequently before approval of propose d treatment plans.