Spectral photon counting for panoramic dental imaging.

Panoramic x-ray imaging is a versatile, low-dose imaging tool, which is routinely used for dental applications. In this work, we explore a further improvement of the concept by introducing recently developed spectral photon-counting detector technology into a conventional panoramic imaging unit. In addition we adapt spectral material decomposition algorithms to panoramic imaging needs. Finally, we provide first experimental results, demonstrating decomposition of an anthropomorphic head phantom into soft tissue and dentin basis material panoramic images, while keeping the noise level acceptable using regularization approaches. The obtained results reveal a potential benefit of spectral photon-counting technology also for dental imaging applications.