Abstract

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate the effect of automatic exposure compensation (AEC) of intraoral radiographic systems on the gray values of dental tissues in images acquired with or without high-density material in the exposed region using different exposure times and kilovoltages. The influence of the distance of the high-density material was also investigated.MethodsRadiographs from the molar region of two mandibles were obtained using the RVG 6100 and the Express systems, operating at 60 and 70 kV and 0.06, 0.10, and 0.16 s. Subsequently, a titanium implant was inserted in the premolar’s socket and other images were acquired. Using the ImageJ software, two regions of interest were determined on the enamel, coronary dentine, root dentine, and pulp of the first and second molars to obtain their gray values.ResultsIn the RVG 6100, the implant did not affect the gray values (p > 0.05); the increase in kV decreased it in all tissues (p < 0.05), and the exposure time affected only the root dentine and pulp. In the Express, only enamel and coronary dentine values changed (p < 0.05), decreasing with the implant presence and/or with the increase in exposure factors. The distance of the implant did not affect the results (p > 0.05).ConclusionsAEC’s performance varies between the radiographic systems. Its effect on the gray values depends not only on the presence or absence of high-density material but also on the kV and exposure time used.

Highlights

  • This study aimed to investigate the effect of automatic exposure compensation (AEC) of intraoral radiographic systems on the gray values of dental tissues in images acquired with or without high-density material in the exposed region using different exposure times and kilovoltages

  • Digital image acquisition systems are increasingly present in dentistry due to their advantages compared to conventional films, such as requiring less exposure time and presenting the possibility of image enhancement, which avoid repetition and reduce the radiation dose to the patient [1,2,3]

  • There were differences between the images acquired with 60 and 70 kV (p < 0.001): for all dental tissues, images obtained with higher kV showed lower gray values

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Summary

Introduction

This study aimed to investigate the effect of automatic exposure compensation (AEC) of intraoral radiographic systems on the gray values of dental tissues in images acquired with or without high-density material in the exposed region using different exposure times and kilovoltages. Image enhancement is performed automatically by the software, after image acquisition, but before it is displayed on the monitor, through an image pre-processing tool called Automatic Exposure Compensation (AEC) [4–6]. This tool increases image contrast, modifying pixel values non-linearly, producing high-contrast radiographs [7, 8].

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