X-ray Developing

• There’s automatic and Ret(?) technique (manual).
• The sequence of developing film at 70 degrees (most common):

1. Unwrap the film
2. Develop (5 min)
3. Rinse
4. Fix (10 min)
5. Wash (20 min)
6. Dry
Automatic developer time is a total of 7 minutes, manual developing is almost an hour.
 If we don’t wash the film after fixing it sort of looks yellowish. Why do we use high speed film? Reduce patient exposure. There are a lot of films out there Ultraspeed D speed (slow), E speed (not so slow), F speed Insight (fastest). F speed film is the same speed as digital radiography sensors to reduce patient exposure.
X-ray Taking Techniques

• 2 techniques to take x-ray film: Paralleling angle technique and bisecting angle technique.
•  If the films are not parallel they get distorted.
•  Sometimes other things that cause slight distortion is, edge gradient, or the fuzziness of the film, called: penumbra (umbrella in French – actually, no, the word for umbrella in French is parapluie).
•  Free hand technique (bisection of the angle technique).

because of anatomical landmarks you can’t hold the film parallel to the tooth (especially in the maxilla because of the arch). All free hand techniques are inaccurate. We use paralleling technique for good geometric accuracy.

Panoramic X-rays

• Panoramic x-rays are accurate within the focal trough (oriented three dimensional zone of focus) of the particular machine.
• The focal trough is less than an inch, if the patient’s head is elliptical instead of round, or the person has a small head, it will distort the image – must postion the patient properly.
• Panoramic x-rays are a screening tool only.