Contamination of dental radiographic solutions

Thirteen groups of periapical radiographic films were evaluated to determine and compare within and between groups the effects of contamination of the fixer solution with developing solution during radiographic processing. An aluminum penetrometer was used as the radiographic object to produce different optical densities. The images were compared using radiographic density and contrast as parameters. There were significant differences between the control groups and the groups processed with a contaminated fixer solution. No statistically significant differences were observed in the intragroup comparisons.