Radiographic contrast. A comparative study of three dental X-ray films.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the radiographic contrast of three dental X-ray films (Ultra-speed, Ektaspeed and Ektaspeed Plus, Eastman-Kodak, Rochester, NY, USA).


METHODS
An aluminium stepwedge was radiographed for the objective assessment and a dried human mandibular segment including the teeth for the subjective evaluation. In the objective assessment, contrast was evaluated from the measured optic densities and the results analysed statistically by the Kruskal-Wallis one-way Anova and Mann-Whitney U test. Subjective evaluation was performed by 12 dentists with a range of clinical experience and scores were assigned to five dental and bony structures.


RESULTS
In the objective evaluation there was no significant difference in contrast obtained with the Ultra-speed and Ektaspeed Plus films: both had significantly better contrast than Ektaspeed film. The subjective assessment revealed that the majority of the dentists preferred either Ultra-speed or Ektaspeed Plus films for contrast.


CONCLUSIONS
Radiographic contrast of Ektaspeed Plus did not differ significantly from Ultra-speed and both were superior to Ektaspeed film.
Tamburus
J R
JR
Department of Radiology, Ribeirao Preto Dental School, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Lavrador
M A
MA
D000535:Aluminum; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D019540:Area Under Curve; D006801:Humans; D008334:Mandible / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011861:Radiography, Dental / Q000295:instrumentation; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014962:X-Ray Film
D000535:Aluminum