The role of software in quality assurance for indirect digital intraoral imaging.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate inherent image quality and the effects of software changes on image quality by using photostimulable phosphor (PSP) plates.

Study Design: Six new DIGORA Optime PSP plates (Soredex/Orion Corp., Helsinki, Finland) were used to assess inherent image quality and the effect of software settings on image quality. Images of a radiographic phantom were exposed to evaluate dynamic range, spatial resolution, and contrast resolution. Varying sharpness filters and gamma values were adjusted to assess their effects on these parameters.

Results: Dynamic range was not affected by software settings. Spatial resolution varied among the raw (i.e., minimally processed) images and increased maximally with application of a sharpness filter of 30. Contrast resolution varied among the plates for the raw images. The gamma value of 0.8 was most consistent at increasing the detection of contrast wells.

Conclusions: The findings of our study suggest that the sharpness filter 30 and gamma value of 0.8 may increase the spatial and contrast resolutions of DIGORA Optime PSP images when applied during the scanning process. However, this increase was small. Our results also establish that software manipulation should not be used in an attempt to compensate for data that are not present in the image.