Imaging using solid-state detectors

Whether they know it or not, many dentists already have adapted solid-state imaging devices into their offices in the form of an intraoral or video-camera system for esthetic dentistry and patient education. These dentists own charge-coupled devices. The technology, however, had been accepted well before instruction in the imaging principles was available. With the addition of digital radiographic systems, the dentist who is "buying into" these contemporary imaging devices must become familiar with the imaging principles behind them, and with the applications of these systems to dental problems or tasks. This article attempts to bring the dentist "up to speed" with this technology and discusses its present and future applications. In this way, the clinician will move past the simple "show-and-tell" stage or patient education and begin to see the true potential of imaging for more accurate detection of disease, for quantitating changes in that disease through time, and for making better clinical decisions about patient treatment.