Evaluating student progress through error reduction in intraoral radiographic technique.

A simple system was developed to collate the errors made when radiographic surveys are taken of the complete mouth. A radiographic critique form was used to evaluate each radiograph. This study used 1150 complete-mouth radiographic surveys made by junior dental students. From a total of 24,150 radiographs, 2238 were clinically unacceptable as a result of one or more errors in technique. No retakes caused by processing or mechanical errors were considered. The four major errors that were found in the study included cone cutting (11.17%), incorrect vertical angulation (11.75%), incorrect horizontal angulation (4.6%), and incorrect film placement (64.9%). Although expected, perhaps the most noteworthy finding was that there was a statistically significant difference between the performance of students during the first quarter as opposed to the third quarter of clinical training; this indicated the need for a minimum of twenty to twenty-five complete mouth radiographic surveys to achieve minimal technical proficiency.

Survey of radiographic requirements and techniques in United States dental assisting programs, 1982.

A survey of dental assisting programs revealed little standardization of student requirements for dental radiography in the United States. Areas for concern were (1) the high proportion of programs in which classmates exposed one another to ionizing radiation for training purposes and (2) the continued use of closed cones in some cases. Preclinical laboratories in radiography were, on average, of considerably longer duration than those previously reported for dental students. Conversely, clinical requirements in intraoral techniques were less for dental assisting students than is the case for dental students. Available methods of reducing patient exposure to ionizing radiation are not being fully implemented.