Observer preference for a dedicated medical display vs a standard screen in the detection of dental radioanatomic features

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess observers' preference for a dentomaxillofacial dedicated medical display (MD) vs a general-purpose standard screen (SS) for in vitro and in vivo observation of normal radioanatomic features. The in vitro sample consisted of 2-dimensional (2-D) intraoral (n = 15), panoramic (n = 2), cephalometric (n = 2), and 3-dimensional (3-D) cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) (n = 9) data sets, acquired by utilizing commercially available skull and head-and-neck phantoms. The in vivo sample consisted of 80 radiographs (intraoral = 20; panoramic = 20; cephalometric = 20; and CBCT = 20). In vitro and in vivo data sets were both acquired by using Minray, Promax2-D, and Vistapano Ceph for 2-D images and Accuitomo, NewTom VGi evo, and Promax3-D for CBCT images. Five observers entered screen preferences when evaluating the appearance of radioanatomic structures on MD and SS. Both in vitro and in vivo assessments showed good interobserver and excellent intraobserver agreement. In vitro data suggested a significant preference for MD over SS for viewing radioanatomic features on panoramic and CBCT images, whereas MD was significantly preferred for in vivo images of all imaging modalities (P < .001). Overall, observers preferred MD over SS for both in vitro and in vivo observation of normal radioanatomic features irrespective of the imaging modality.