Re:The 'Irrational' Way Humans Interact With Dentists
by CWuestefeld on Tuesday October 12, 2010 @05:04PM
(#1784960)
Just spoke to my periodontist about this last week. He said he's still using film for two reasons:
1. The digital x-ray plates are rigid. He finds this deforms the soft tissue too much to show a good picture.
2. Scaling. With film, he can take a direct measurement at 1:1 scale off the image. With digital, the scale isn't 1:1 (and variable? I wasn't clear on that), making it more difficult to work with. One imagines this would be a simple problem to solve.
(The bad news is that we were discussing this as he was investigating a 9mm pocket at the root of one tooth. He says I'll at least need a root canal; likely lose the tooth and need an implant. He's sent me to my "regular" dentist for a 2nd opinion -- that gives me more trust.)
My brother, who is a dentist, used both film and digital in school and found he preferred the resolution of film. No doubt digital will improve though.