How to preparing dental films for submission
Vetdentalrad.com reads all films via telemedicine, using the internet to transmit the images. Options for submission include taking pictures of regular dental films or exporting images from digital dental radiography systems. The instructions below provide short summaries of the different methods for submitting your films. In all cases, the following three steps apply:
1. Prepare the files in JPEG format using either your camera (regular films) or your digital dental radiography program.
2. Use the JPEG converter program to convert the JPEG files to DICOM 3.0 format.
3. Use the pocket reminder program to give us the case history and upload the files to our server. In the near future, steps #2 and #3 will be combined into one convenient step. Keep reading for a more detailed explanation.
Regardless of how you take your dental films, you will eventually need to have JPEG format digital files of your images available on a computer that is connected to the internet. The images may be on the hard drive of that computer, or may be placed on an external storage device such as a CD, flash drive or camera memory device, which may then be plugged into the computer with internet access.
Select the appropriate link on the right for more detailed directions on how the prepare your JPEG files for submission. We have included instructions on preparing files using a camera to take images of regular dental films, as well as abbreviated guides for exporting images from some of the popular digital dental radiography systems currently in use.
After the files are in JPEG format, they will need to be converted to DICOM 3.0 format, which provides secure patient identification information with each image. This will ensure that all patient files are correctly identified. The DICOM 3.0 image format is the emerging format for all veterinary digital medical files. Unfortunately, few digital dental systems allow for export in this format at this time. This should change over the next 1-2 years. In the meantime, VDR.com has elected to receive all submissions in the DICOM 3.0 format for added security in our communications with you. To this end, we have provided software (the DICOM converter program).
After converting the files to the DICOM 3.0 format, the final step is to upload the files using the Pocket reminder program. The pocket reminder is also used to attach the patient history to the images. Once the upload has begun, it will proceed in the background and you may use the computer for other purposes.
This process may seem initially cumbersome, but after a few times only takes a few minutes to accomplish.
Whenever possible, try to include a radiograph from the contra-lateral side to serve as a “normal”. This can be invaluable for evaluating individual variations in normal radiographic anatomy.