Testing kits for the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have been in short supply, hard to access, and slow to give results. So, why are chest x-rays not used for COVID-19 screening? Digital x-rays are nearly instantaneous, and many chiropractor and doctor’s office x-ray machines sat unused for most of the early days of…
Author Archives: Elena Arroway
How can I see the entire lateral c-spine on my x-rays?!? That seems to be the million-dollar question. Obviously from a physical standpoint, the shoulders are 4-5x thicker than the neck, and you are using the same amount of x-ray to image both in that shot. So, there are a couple of techniques/methods you can try…
Almost all medical x-ray tubes have two focal spot sizes. For some machines, the operator is able to select ‘Small’ or ‘Large’ focal spot sizes. On other machines, the different mA selections will have an ‘S’ or an ‘L’ after them (e.g., 100S or 300L) that corresponds to the same settings. But what does this…
Dental x-rays have always given patients such a small amount of radiation that its effects are considered almost an afterthought. Dentists and hygienists are taught the details and intricacies of radiation dose and its interactions with the human body, but the public’s knowledge is limited. To make it understandable, in practice, dental staff members often…
First, the good news – the CDPHE will now defer to the Colorado State Board of Dental Examiners with regards to how Registered Dental Hygienists (RDH) can operate independently in ordering and interpreting x-rays. This is a hurdle that has been tough for a lot of RDHs operating their own facilities especially in more remote…