Scanner for dental x-rays. I need some advice, please!

[Costas Soros]

Hi everybody!
I'm interested in bying a scanner for digitizing intraoral dental x-rays
(dimensions: 40mm x 30mm). Normally a film/slide scanner would do the
job, however the dimensions of an intraoral film are slightly bigger
than those of slide (35mm, right?). If it were not for this, I would
have already bought a microtek filmscan 2700 which is cheap, compact
(very important for a dental office) and seems efficient.

How can I surpass the problem of dimensions, without having to invest in
really expensive scanners?
(Please, avoid to inform me about indirect ways of digitizing x-rays,
such as capturing with a digital camera by means of the light-box. I
know all about, it is not functional)

I thank you in advance.

Costas Soros, DDS.

 

[Bart van der Wolf]

Hi everybody!
I'm interested in bying a scanner for digitizing intraoral dental
x-rays (dimensions: 40mm x 30mm). Normally a film/slide
scanner would do the job, however the dimensions of an
intraoral film are slightly bigger than those of slide (35mm,
right?).

Right, 35mm film is 35mm wide, but with perforations on both sides.
The actual image between the perforations is 36x24mm, while the Size 2
intraoral films are 41x31mm).

If it were not for this, I would have already bought a microtek
filmscan 2700 which is cheap, compact (very important for a
dental office) and seems efficient.

I also doubt it would accomodate the film size, but I'm pretty sure it
won't scan full width (usually limited to 24mm or so).

How can I surpass the problem of dimensions, without having
to invest in really expensive scanners?

I know the resolution of those X-ray films is limited, so you may
want to try a so-called Flatbed scanner. Whether the resolution is
high enough, needs to be established, but the ability to
trans-illuminate (with a film provision) the most dense/opaque film
areas may be another issue.

Unless someone else has personal experience in doing it, I'd say
experimentation is in order. Concentrate on actual (not claimed)
resolution, and actual (not claimed) dynamic range performance. Added
benefits of a flatbed scanner are the possibility to scan several
films at the same time, optionally scan some extra-oral films (OPGs
are too large, but several Occlusals size 4 will fit), and the diffuse
lightsource in the scanner lid will reduce the graininess.

http://www.epson.co.uk/products/scanners/Expression1680.htm in the Pro
edition might be adequate, but I have no personal experience with it.

Bart

 

[Costas Soros]

Right, 35mm film is 35mm wide, but with perforations on both sides.
The actual image between the perforations is 36x24mm, while the Size 2
intraoral films are 41x31mm).



I also doubt it would accomodate the film size, but I'm pretty sure it
won't scan full width (usually limited to 24mm or so).



I know the resolution of those X-ray films is limited, so you may
want to try a so-called Flatbed scanner. Whether the resolution is
high enough, needs to be established, but the ability to
trans-illuminate (with a film provision) the most dense/opaque film
areas may be another issue.

Unless someone else has personal experience in doing it, I'd say
experimentation is in order. Concentrate on actual (not claimed)
resolution, and actual (not claimed) dynamic range performance. Added
benefits of a flatbed scanner are the possibility to scan several
films at the same time, optionally scan some extra-oral films (OPGs
are too large, but several Occlusals size 4 will fit), and the diffuse
lightsource in the scanner lid will reduce the graininess.

http://www.epson.co.uk/products/scanners/Expression1680.htm in the Pro
edition might be adequate, but I have no personal experience with it.

Bart

Thanks for all the advice, Bart! Thanks a lot!!!

 

[DLGlos]

Hi everybody!
I'm interested in bying a scanner for digitizing intraoral dental x-rays
(dimensions: 40mm x 30mm). Normally a film/slide scanner would do the
job, however the dimensions of an intraoral film are slightly bigger
than those of slide (35mm, right?). If it were not for this, I would
have already bought a microtek filmscan 2700 which is cheap, compact
(very important for a dental office) and seems efficient.

How can I surpass the problem of dimensions, without having to invest in
really expensive scanners?
(Please, avoid to inform me about indirect ways of digitizing x-rays,
such as capturing with a digital camera by means of the light-box. I
know all about, it is not functional)

I thank you in advance.

Costas Soros, DDS.

The resolution of x-rays generally is not very high, as compared to
say a typical 35mm photographic slide. There are two ways to tackle
this issue. First, would be a flatbed scanner with a transparency
hood. I have an Epson 3200, which is capable of handling films up to
4x5". The only possible downside, is whether the scanner can deal with
the high D-max of the source films. Don't expect this to go very fast.

The second possibility, and one that I have used for larger x-ray
capture, is to simply place them on a lightbox, and photograph with a
digital camera. I have always used either a Nikon D1x or D100 with a
60mm Nikkor Macro lens, but I have seen others make perfectly decent
captures with consumer type digicams. I always have had access to a
professional copy stand, but mounting your digicam on a small desktop
tripod, and mounting the lightbox vertically would work fine. Don't
try it handheld. You don't even need a cable release....just put the
camera in self time mode, push the shutter release, pull your hand
away, and let the camera take the image. Do put the camera in manual
mode, and find out what shutter speeds and apertures work best. Once
setup, you could easily digitize 30-60 images per hour, which is a lot
higher throuput than you would get with a scanner. Do mask the x-ray
on the lightbox to reduce possibility of flares.

Don't laught too hard at this scheme till you have tried it. A buddy,
in pathology, has found it to be the best way to digitize their
departments TEM films. He had a numerically higher pixel count from
his flatbed scanner attempts, but really no higher resolution, since
it wasn't there, on the film, to begin with. The scanner workflow was
also much more time consuming.

David Glos

 

[esantoro]

My two cents.

I'm crazy about the old HP 4Cs, 3Cs, and 6100Cs (SCSI). I have tried
many scanners and still cannot surpass the quality and speed of these
old HPs. Disregard my opinion here if you need an optical res higher
than 600, but I don't think you do.

You can easily find these scanners with attached lightbox used for
about $50, excluding shipping. You can do a full legal size scan if
needed. I do not know of any new scanner out there for under $700 or
so that will do the same.

Yes these scanners are big, but big and beautiful. If you need to
replace parts just buy another used one (as long as you can isolate
the problem). Sometimes you can get just the scanner for less than $5
on Ebay.

As the years go by these scanners get another year older and I wonder
about the wisdom of my frugal practice, but I simply have not been
able to replace their quality with anything under $1000. I did go out
and get an Epson all-in-one design, but that was simply because I
needed an inkjet printer, which cost about the same.

ES