Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
by Dr Karan Shah, Diggers Rest Animal Hospital, VIC
This is a digital dental X-ray machine that has made all our dentals much quicker. It can be used with cats, dogs and pretty much any animal. When Dr David Clarke came to our practice to train the team, he mentioned that he even uses this unit with bears at zoos.
What’s good about it
Once you’ve taken an X-ray, the image appears on the computer within seconds. You know immediately if the image isn’t all it should be, and you can retake it straight away.
The plate is placed inside a plastic sleeve and positioned inside the animal’s mouth. It’s only about three centimetres in size, so a big dog may need a couple of extra shots compared to a small dog or cat.
Once the unit is installed and set up, it’s very easy to operate. As with all dental X-rays, the most difficult part of the process is positioning the plate and the beam so you get everything in the X-ray. Once you get that right, it’s just a click of a button.
The unit is portable but we keep ours with the dental table. The unit comes with a program that’s installed on the PC. The scans are then transferred to patient files with any notes or markings we make.
The quality of the images is outstanding. You can play with the contrast to clearly show the periodontal ligament. If you’re at least 1.5 metres away from the generator, X-ray gowns are not required.
What’s not so good
If you don’t do a lot of dental X-rays, it may take a little time to get used to positioning the plate and the beam. Once you figure out a system, a clear image is pretty much guaranteed every time.
