RGO: Revista Gaúcha de Odontologia ()
Technical errors in intraoral radiographs performed by undergraduate students
Abstract
Objectives: To evaluate the technical errors in periapical examinations performed by dental students. Methods: Patient record charts at the dental clinic of the dentistry course were analyzed. Of these, the charts that presented at least ten periapical intraoral radiographs were used in the study, therefore a total of 219 patient record charts were selected, totaling 2 821 radiographs. The radiographs were analyzed one by one, using an uniform light negatoscope, in a darkened room, by a professional radiologist, taking into consideration the following evaluation criteria: technically good and unsatisfactory radiographs. The technical errorswere classified as errors in radiographic technique and radiographic processing errors. The data on quality critera stipulated and obtainedin the evaluation were tabulated, intervals of confidence were used to infer the percentage that were suitable and unsuitable in the studied period, and were statistically analyzed using the chi-square test, at the level of significance of 5%. Results: The results were: of the 2 821 radiographs analyzed, only 1 425 (50.51%) were technically good. of the 1 396 (49.49%) considered inadequat, 1 155 (82.74%) presented errors in radiographic technique, while 241 (17.26%) presented radiographic processing errors. The most frequently repeated error was image overlapping (32.88%), followed by the underexposure (25.43%), cut of the tooth (9.31%), chemicalcontamination problems (4.51%), cone cut (3.15%), other errors in radiographic technique (1.86%) and other radiographic processing errors (1.43%). Conclusion: The conclusion was that steps must be taken to improve the quality of radiographs obtained because, although they did not make it impossible to interpret the radiographs, this was made extremely difficult, and the depreciated the value of the achives of past clinical situations and cases.
