Journal of Forensic Research

Exposure Standards for Digital and Analogue Dry Skull Orthopantomography

Abstract

Thiago L. Beaini, Paulo Eduardo Miamoto Dias and Rodolfo F. H. Melani

Forensic or scientific practices may require producing orthopantomography of dry skulls, that lack soft tissue, therefore modifications on the usual technique should be necessary. With the objective of standardizing the postmortem digital and analogue panoramic radiography this research produced a single a digital radiography and 13 analogue panoramic images, using different exposure configurations and four different objects to try to overcome the effects of the lack of soft tissue radiation absorption on the analog radiographs. A gel based ice pack, a 20 mm dental wax block, and a 0.5 mm metallic foil were placed in different points of the device. Also a previously exposed and developed film was placed inside the cassette between the unexposed film and the intensifying screen. The images were presented to 15 dentists of several specialties, who graded and ranked the images. In conclusion, the digital panoramic was easily obtained at a 60 kV and 2 mA settings and on analog equipments the use of two films inside the cassette achieved best results with 63 kV and 06 mA exposure settings.