McConnell's dental flight moving into the 21st century

  • Published
  • By Capt.Tiara Brown
  • 22nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron Dental flight
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  The 22nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron dental clinic installed a new digital X-ray system in February. In 2006, the United States Air Force Dental Service launched an initiative to bring all Air Force dental clinics into the digital X-ray image age.

Digital radiography improves the efficiency and convenience of dental appointments by automatically projecting images on the computer screen. The dental clinic has taken more than 3,000 X-rays in the past year.

In the past, it took 7 minutes to develop traditional X-rays per patient. With the new digital system a radiologist can view the image instantaneously saving 1,820 man-hours a year because no processing is required.

Digital radiography eliminates the need for chemicals and paper and is Earth friendly. The new process eliminates the use of 182 liters of toxic chemicals a year to develop the traditional X-ray film.

The conventional dental X-ray process was composed of three parts: "shooting" the X-ray, developing the film and the dentist reading it. The old film was housed in a plastic sleeve with a lead backing. Eliminating this type of film ends the use of lead, immediately reducing the impact on the environment.

The digital film or sensors look much like the old film with one exception: the USB cable extending from the sensor to the computer. Once the sensor is exposed to a much lower level of radiation, a computer software program captures the image which is viewed on a monitor. While radiation doses from traditional dental X-ray film were not considered dangerous to the patient, digital dental radiographs produce a higher quality image at radiation exposure settings reduced by 90 percent.

The greatest advantage of the direct sensor system is the time saved. The image appears directly on the dentist's computer monitor within seconds, regardless of where the X-ray is actually taken. The picture can then be enhanced and manipulated as well as shared with other dental providers to assist in diagnosis and treatment of dental diseases.

Once an X-ray is taken, it is archived locally in a patient database. Eventually, each base will be linked to a central repository, so a patient's X-ray can be available to Air Force dentists worldwide. However, until that capability is established, X-rays taken at McConnell will be copied to a CD-ROM for patients who change stations, separate or retire.