Chapter 6 Training
Dental Radiographs
Laurel Bird, CVT, VTS (Dentistry)
Producing quality dental radiographs is a skill every technician should possess. Following is a list of radiographic views that you should be able to perform. Ideally, only one take should be needed, though some views may require two takes to get the angulations correct. Your goal should be a minimum of takes. I recommend that you take a cadaver or bare skull and practice taking several radiographs to get the proper views. That way, when you are working with a client’s pet you will only take a minimal number of takes.
Points to keep in mind are: teeth should be approximately the same size on your film as in the pet, each radiograph should have at least 2 mm of clearance beyond the root apex, full crowns and roots should be visible for each tooth and all teeth should appear on the set of radiographs.
Skill 1: Full mouth radiographs of a dog
*Upper incisor view
*Upper left and right lateral canine tooth views
*Upper left and right first through third premolars
*Upper left and right fourth premolar and molars
*Lower incisor view
*Lower left and right lateral canine and first premolar
*Lower left and right second through fourth premolars
*Lower left and right molars
Skill 2: Full mouth radiographs of a cat
*Upper incisor view
*Upper left and right canine tooth views
*Upper left and right premolars and molar
*Lower incisor view
*Lower left and right lateral canine tooth
*Lower left and right premolars and molars
Skill 3: Identify normal structures
*maxillary sinus/mandibular border
*Find the mental foramina
*Find the infraorbital foramen
*Identify all three roots of the upper fourth
*Correctly position radiographs for viewing
*Identify the pulp cavity, dentin and enamel
Skill 4: Filing, storage
*If using film, correctly put in mounts
*Place in envelops and label correctly
*Store images correctly