Electronic digital sensors for dental radiography continue to replace conventional film. The advantages of these devices over film are many and include the potential for computer-aided diagnosis. A uniform image over the sensor field and a reproducible image or a means to compensate for variations are required. Another requirement is an image free of artifacts. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the images from two digital sensors exposed by two x-ray generators for artifacts. METHODS: Two Trophy RVG-ui #2 sensors were exposed at a distance of 16 inches using two x-ray generators: 1) Planmeca Prostyle Intra with settings at 8 ma, 70 kvp, 0.25 sec, and 2) Siemens Heliodent 70 with settings at 7 ma, 70 kvp, 0.25 sec. Lead and air were in the image field with lead covering approximately one-half of a sensor adjacent to the cord. Eight exposures for the four combinations of the two sensors and two generators were made, for a total of 32 exposures. The RVG images were captured using Trophy Mac v2.6 software with settings of endo and HR on a Macintosh computer with OS X v10.4. They were exported into TIFF image files that were imported by NIH Image v1.62 software for analysis. The brightness of the image covered by lead was measured near the border with air. The measurements were compared for response using ANOVA and Tukey-Kramer with alpha=0.05. RESULTS: Some images exhibited a sharp transition of brightness values at the lead-air border but others exhibited a grey band in the lead covered side of the image. The responses between sensors (means=226.3, 247.7) and between generators (means=221.0, 252.9) were significantly different. CONCLUSION: Artifacts in electronic digital radiographic images can be an obstacle to computer-aided diagnosis.

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