History of panoramic radiography

The first attempts to image the whole jaw were made with intraoral radiation sources at the beginning of this century. The narrow-beam principle was described in 1922. Experimental work and development of equipment in the 1950s resulted in commercially available machines in the early 1960s. The panoramic technique originated from the need to image the jaws, but it was also applied to other anatomic regions, before CT became available. Panoramic radiography is an essential element in oral radiology today.