Evaluating student progress through error reduction in intraoral radiographic technique.

A simple system was developed to collate the errors made when radiographic surveys are taken of the complete mouth. A radiographic critique form was used to evaluate each radiograph. This study used 1150 complete-mouth radiographic surveys made by junior dental students. From a total of 24,150 radiographs, 2238 were clinically unacceptable as a result of one or more errors in technique. No retakes caused by processing or mechanical errors were considered. The four major errors that were found in the study included cone cutting (11.17%), incorrect vertical angulation (11.75%), incorrect horizontal angulation (4.6%), and incorrect film placement (64.9%). Although expected, perhaps the most noteworthy finding was that there was a statistically significant difference between the performance of students during the first quarter as opposed to the third quarter of clinical training; this indicated the need for a minimum of twenty to twenty-five complete mouth radiographic surveys to achieve minimal technical proficiency.