title: The role of direct intraoral sensors in the provision of endodontic services.
abstract: The recent commercial success of intraoral sensor systems largely reflects the quest to improve the quality assurances for endodontic services. The many advantages of these systems include reduced radiation exposures, real-time images, resolution improvements after initial image capture and archival benefits, although their diagnostic benefits over conventional film based radiographs remain a concern. For instance, the images from either charge-coupled device or storage phosphor sensors have yet to exceed the potential 50 microns spatial and 12-bit contrast resolutions obtained from the 1.75-6.40 microns silver grain emulsions of conventional films or the potential improvements derived from smaller (1 micron) grains. Intraoral sensor systems alone are therefore unlikely to improve the quality assurances for endodontic services.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Dentistry, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Lavelle
mesh_terms: D004708:Endodontics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D010483:Periapical Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement; D011861:Radiography, Dental / Q000295:instrumentation; D019252:Radiography, Dental, Digital / Q000295:instrumentation*