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

Abstract

Objective: 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.

Study design: 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.

Results: 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).

Conclusions: Overall, observers preferred MD over SS for both in vitro and in vivo observation of normal radioanatomic features irrespective of the imaging modality.