Panoramic radiography incorporating an inclined film plane

The introduction in panoramic radiography of a film plane that is consistently parallel to the object layer has been proposed, and is suggested to constitute a major improvement of the panoramic technique. The effects of the new approach on geometrical image properties and motion unsharpness are analyzed. For the analysis, an expanded general theory of panoramic radiography was derived based on a previously published theory. The advantage of the new technique is that the distortion-free plane in the object coincides with the plane of minimum motion unsharpness. Although the gain in geometrical image properties is offset by a certain loss in resolution and layer thickness, the effect of both features on exposed panoramic radiographs does not appear to be clinically significant.