Sensor Comparison Format
The purpose of this study in to compare, in the most objective possible way, the images obtained from the most popular veterinary digital dental radiography DR (direct) systems. The images will be available, via the web, to any interested individuals. It is expected that their will a high level of interest generated by this study.
To be included in the comparison, a vendor must agree, via e-mail, to the following format for evaluation.
1. All images will be obtained using the same two feline and canine specimens, kept at Dr. Woodward’s office, using the same dental x-ray machine at Dr. Woodward’s office.
2. All vendors are invited to bring their own laptop computers and applicable software for processing the images.
3. All Vendors are invited to have their own personnel obtain and process (with Dr. Woodward’s positioning assistance) the images to show their system in the best light. Vendors are encouraged to take numerous exposures, selecting the best exposures for evaluation. Vendors are welcome to send anyone they wish to assist with obtaining their images.
4. If a vendor representative is unavailable, Dr. Woodward would be willing to obtain the images, using the vendor’s choice of their proprietary software or Apteryx software, and send them to the vendor for selection and approval. In this case, selection and approval should be provided by the vendor within 10 days of submission to the vendor.
5. Identical views will be taken of:
- a. A canine upper fourth premolar, utilizing a standardized 45 degree bisecting angle technique.
- b. Canine lower first molar using a standardized parallel technique.
- c. Feline maxillary premolars using a standardized near-parallel technique with identical mouth sensor placement and tube angulation.
- d. Line-pair grid. For the line-pair grid, it is recommended that, if possible, any software filters be turned off as they may adversely effect the performance in this view. We can obtain views with the filters on and off, and the vendor may select their preferred line-pair image. These views were selected to provide sample of the sensor’s performance in a variety of common clinical situations: Parallel, near-parallel and bisecting angle techniques. The line-pair grid gives a rough measure of the sensor’s resolution.
6. The selected images will be “raw images”, that is no artificial adjustments will be applied to any of the images after they are on the screen. Vendors are welcome to adjust their system settings in any way to provide the highest quality images. Once the images are obtained, however, no additional modifications may be made to those images. If end-users wish to adjust brightness and contrast, they will have the opportunity to do so using their own software, on their own computers.
7. All images will need to be saved in a common format, easily viewed by a variety of end users. Therefore, all images will be saved as JPEG files in the highest resolution offered by the available software. Although DICOM 3.0 is generally considered to be the future standard for all dental radiography, it is recognized that not all software is currently capable of exporting images in this format.
8. The final images will be immediately placed in a labeled folder by vendor, and a copy of the folder will be made for the vendor. This will help ensure that no alterations in the images are made. Once final images are approved, the images become the copyrighted property of VetDentalVentures, LLC (Dr. Tony Woodward and Dr. Brook Niemiec) for their exclusive use as described herein.
9. No vendor will be allowed to view the images of another vendor until the conclusion of the testing.
10. All images will be made available via VetDentalRad.com, the dental teleradiology and training site operated by Dr. Tony Woodward and Dr. Brook Niemiec.
11. On the VetDentalRad.com website, Dr. Woodward and Dr. Niemiec will not make any comments regarding their personal image preferences, the software systems used, the companies involved, customer support issues, our experiences with any system, etc. Our only intent is to make objective comparisons of the images easily available for potential users, so that they can decide their preference using their own software and monitor.
12. Via the website, interested parties will be able to request a free CD with the images.
13. The images may also be used in the future for a double-blinded article in a refereed veterinary journal. There are no immediate plans for such an article.