Is digital better in dental radiography?

In Slovenia, dental radiography was the first field in which projection x-ray imaging using digital detectors was done. At present around 30% of intraoral dental x-ray units use digital detectors. Annual test results were analysed to compare digital systems with film-based ones. The survey results show significantly lower doses of exposure in digital systems. In our opinion digital systems are especially suitable for practitioners who perform a low number of x-ray examinations (e. g. private dentists), because of problems that may arise due to developing a limited number of films. The problem with digital systems could be the ease of deleting an image and performing another examination, the extent of which was not investigated.