Correction of background noise in direct digital dental radiography

OBJECTIVES: To clarify the source of noise in direct digital intra-oral radiography with RVG-S (Trophy Radiologie, Vincennes, France) and to use these to develop a method for correction of background noise. METHODS: Sensor temperature, image acquisition time and X-ray dose were independently analysed with the IPLab Spectrum (Signal Analytics, Vienna, VA) software. RESULTS: The decrease in pixel value due to the dark current was linearly related to the image acquisition time. Although a variation in sensitivity was observed when the sensor was exposed to X-rays, the mean pixel value of the entire image was linearly related to the exposure time. The image showing only the signal due to X-ray dose was derived from the original RVG-S image by correcting for the dark current and the pixel-by-pixel sensitivity variation of the CCD sensor. CONCLUSION: The image formed only by X-ray dose distribution can be derived by correcting for the background noise.