Olaf E. Langland

A cephalostat for the Orthopantomograph

T he need to limit movement of the head in dental radiography was recognized by Bennet in 1908. Charlebois and Boucherl summarized his work and that of others on head holders. Brader,? Ricketts3 and Speidel and Isaacson’ reported on the use of a head-positioning device with a laminagraphic x-ray unit. Kane5 and Langland have devised head holders for use in curved-surface laminagraphy. However, the literature has included no studies of a cephalostat with the 0rthopantomograph.t The objectives of the present study are (1) to develop a cephalostat and head-positioning procedure and (2) to examine the reliability of the head-positioning procedure.

Diagnostic quality versus patient exposure with five panoramic screen-film combinations

Five film-screen combinations were used to make five density-matched panoramic radiographs of a tissue-equivalent phantom skull using the Midwest/Morita Panoral x-ray machine. The radiographs were evaluated as to their diagnostic quality by twenty dental radiologists. The results demonstrate that proper screen-film selection can significantly reduce patient exposure without compromising diagnostic quality.