Dental radiography in New Zealand: digital versus film.

Unlabelled: Digital x-ray systems offer advantages over conventional film systems, yet many dentists have not adopted digital technology.

Objectives: To assess New Zealand dental practitioners' use of--and preferences for--dental radiography systems.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: General and specialist dental practice.

Participants and methods: Postal questionnaire survey of a sample of 770 dentists (520 randomly selected general dental practitioners and all 250 specialists) listed in the 2012 NZ Dental Council Register.

Main outcome measures: Type of radiography systems used by dentists. Dentists' experiences and opinions of conventional film and digital radiography.

Results: The participation rate was 55.2%. Digital radiography systems were used by 58.0% of participating dentists, most commonly among those aged 31-40 years. Users of digital radiography tended to report greater satisfaction with their radiography systems than users conventional films. Two-thirds of film users were interested in switching to digital radiography in the near future. Reasons given by conventional film users for not using digital radiography included cost, difficulty in integrating with other software systems, concern about potential technical errors, and the size and nature of the intra-oral sensors.

Conclusion: Many dental practitioners have still not adopted digital radiography, yet its users are more satisfied with their radiography systems than are conventional film users. The latter may find changing to a digital system to be satisfying and rewarding.