Intra-Oral X-Ray Collimator Aiming System
AssigneePac-Dent, Inc.
InventorsDaniel Wang, Kevin Wu, Taosheng Hu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A dental X-ray aiming system. The system includes an aiming ring, a sensor support arm and a sensor holder configured to hold an image sensor in the X-ray field of a dental X-ray system, and a radiopaque shield disposed with the aiming ring. The shield includes an oblong aperture which allows passage of X-rays through the ring. The shield is rotatable relative to the sensor, in order to align a long axis of the aperture with the long axis of the sensor, thus blocking stray X-rays which represent unneeded exposure to the patient and which may degrade the quality of the image with stray X-rays.
Claims8
A dental aiming ring assembly for use with a dental X-ray image sensor and a collimator of an X-ray imaging system, said system comprising:
- an aiming ring (2);
- a radiopaque shield (19) disposed within the aiming ring (2);
- a sensor holder (11, 16, 17) configured to hold an image sensor (9) within the mouth of a patient;
- a first support arm (5 or 6) configured to hold the sensor holder and image sensor in a first position spaced from the aiming ring (2);
- wherein
- the radiopaque shield (19) has an oblong aperture (20), and said radiopaque shield is rotatable relative to the sensor holder (11, 16, 17).
A dental aiming ring assembly for use with a dental X-ray image sensor and a collimator of an X-ray imaging system, said system comprising:
- an aiming ring (2);
- a radiopaque shield (19) disposed within the aiming ring (2);
- a sensor holder (11, 16, 17) configured to hold an image sensor (9) within the mouth of a patient;
- an image sensor (9) fixed to the sensor holder;
- a first support arm (5 or 6) coupled to the sensor holder and configured to hold the image sensor in a first position spaced from the aiming ring (2);
- wherein
- the radiopaque shield (19) has an oblong aperture (20), and said radiopaque shield is rotatable relative to the sensor holder (11, 16, 17) and the image sensor (9) fixed to the sensor holder.
A method of obtaining dental X-ray images, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a dental aiming ring system for use with a dental X-ray image sensor and a collimator of an X-ray imaging system, said system comprising:
- an aiming ring (2);
- a radiopaque shield (19) disposed within the aiming ring (2);
- a sensor holder (11, 16, 17) configured to hold the sensor holder (11, 16, 17) within the mouth of a patient;
- an oblong image sensor (9) secured to the sensor holder (11, 16, 17);
- a first support arm (5 or 6) configured to hold the sensor holder (11, 16, 17) and image sensor (9) in a first position spaced from the aiming ring (2);
- wherein
- the radiopaque shield (19) has an oblong aperture (20), and said radiopaque shield is rotatable relative to the image sensor (9) fixed to the sensor holder (11, 16, 17);
- rotating the radiopaque shield (19) to align the oblong aperture (20) with the oblong image sensor (9) secured to the sensor holder (11, 16, 17);
- and
- obtaining X-ray images on the image sensor (9) by directing X-rays through the aiming ring (2) and aperture (20) and toward the image sensor (9).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.