The U.S. Air Force recently completed a four-year-long rollout of its integrated digital dental radiography system, a project that will zap digital dental images across nearly 80 Air Force dental offices treating active-duty and Air Reserve and Air National Guard personnel worldwide.

The new system completely replaces film-based x-rays with digital radiography, which means that Air Force dentists will be able in near real-time to store patient radiographs and access them later or share them with other dental providers and specialists across the service.

"Bottom line: This probably is the single biggest change and enhancement that we've made to the Air Force Dental Service in its history," said Col. (Dr.) David Stanczyk, consultant to the U.S. Air Force Surgeon General for dental technology integration. "Virtually 100 percent of all dental appointments from now on will rely on this technology."

Digital radiographs are considered beneficial for a number of reasons: They are available for viewing in 30 seconds, compared to the up to 6 minutes it takes to develop film-based x-rays. The images are displayed on a computer monitor and can be manipulated and shared, ultimately making it easier to diagnose and treat dental diseases and educate the patient on why treatment is necessary.

They cut the amount of radiation exposure to the patient and technician by up to 50 percent and, because digital radiographs don't require chemicals to develop, they are more environmentally friendly and more cost-effective.

The use of digital x-rays will also enable the Air Force to more easily meet the Department of Defense's recently created Dental Health Standard, which requires that 65 percent of all service members are dentally healthy.

"That means they don't even need a cleaning and they don't have any cavities," Stanczyk says, adding that the Air Force has already met the mandate. "As a result, we can deploy a great number of our airmen and not have them lose time from their mission to go take care of some dental issue that could have been prevented."

Historically, he adds, dental problems have been one of the top causes of non-battle-related disease among troops during wartime, resulting in impaired performance and a significant loss of time and financial resources.

Now that this project is completed, Col. (Dr.) Dennis D. Stuckey, USAF (ret.), a senior consultant on Air Force Digital Dental Radiology, says that the next goal is to integrate with digital dental radiography systems currently being developed by the Navy and the Army, as well as the digital radiography system and electronic health record (EHR) already in use by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"Our goal ultimately is to have these high-quality images available any place in the world, 24/7 and that will keep our personnel mission-ready," says Stuckey. "Then when our service members leave active duty, we will be able to seamlessly transfer their dental images into the VA system."

The Air Force Digital Dental Radiography solution relies on Medicor Imaging MiPACS digital imaging software and various digital imaging capture devices.

Those images are then stored in a central archive that is accessible via the NIPRNet, the military's secure, encrypted network for sensitive but unclassified information, according to Byron Love, Director of the Federal Services Program Management Office for Force 3, a professional services firm that implemented the system for the Air Force.