Prevalence of Radiographic Errors in IOPA

Abstract

Radiographs are considered as a crucial aid in diagnosis, intraoral and post operative evaluation of different
conditions and dental procedures. Exposing the patient to beams of x ray more than needed is time consuming
and increases treatment cost. Some of the errors include cone cut, overlap, elongation, shortening, hazy
image, ghost image, artifacts and reversed film.The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence of
radiographic errors in IOPA. The study was aimed to investigate the correlation of radiographic errors
in IOPA. 100 case reports of patients were obtained from Dental Archive Software and was tabulated in
Excel. The data analysis was done using SPSS software. The graphs were obtained and the results were
tabulated. Overlap type of error was more prevalent for upto 41%. There were more errors as well like
elongation 16%, shortening 17%, hazy image 12%, cone cut 13% and ghost image 1%. 27% of the study
population that underwent radiographic errors were between 21 to 30 years. 36% of the errors were caused
by molars. Undergraduate students performed more errors in which overlap occurred for 26% while among
postgraduate students they occurred for 15%(figure 5). Overlap type of error was the most common cause
of radiographic error. Radiographs being one of the golden standards for diagnosis, need to be done with
proper knowledge and awareness.