Quality assurance phantom for digital dental imaging

Objective The purpose of this research was to develop a simple quality assurance phantom that could be used for the initial calibration and follow-up testing of commercially available intraoral digital imaging systems. Study design A radiographic phantom was constructed that contains a calibrated step wedge for measuring dose response, an etched pattern of slits in a metallic background for measuring the spatial resolution in line pairs per millimeter, and 2 rows of wells of varying diameter and depth in an acrylic background for contrast-detail analysis. Quality assurance protocols were developed and validated. Results The quality assurance phantom provides a method of assessing a digital intraoral imaging system by measuring the sensitivity and dynamic range, the contrast/detail detectability and the spatial resolution. Conclusions This quality assurance phantom can serve as an effective means to calibrate and monitor the performance characteristics of a digital dental intraoral imaging system.