Development of a training system for intraoral radiography

Intraoral radiography is one of the effective diagnosis method for dental clinic, which is used to examine dental caries and gum disease. A patient needs to have a small film inserted in their mouth. The position and orientation of the film are properly adjusted by the dentist. An indicator cone which directs X-ray is set up outside the patient's mouth. The intraoral radiograph provide a dental perspective projection image of the patient's teeth, thus the individual differences of patients make it more difficult to take an appropriate radiograph regardless of the experience of dentist. Recently, the skills of intraoral radiography of Japanese dental students and intern doctors are declining. A conventional education method for intraoral radiography currently conducted does not provide enough time to master intraoral radiographic technique for the dental students, because much time to develop the roentgenogram is necessary. This paper describes the development of a training system for intraoral radiography. The system is composed of a notebook computer, two PHANToM Omni devices, and a dental arch model, where the PHANToM Omni devices are used to measure the position and orientation of a indicator cone and film of the system. We applied the computer graphics technique to draw an intraoral radiograph on the computer display, thus the system enables trainees to practice the intraoral radiography without a X-ray machine, lots of film sheets, and time for the development of roentgenogram. In this paper, we present the system structure, a simulation method for generating an intraoral radiography, and simulation results.