Dental Radiography History

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen

• Professor at Wuerzburg University in Germany

• Discovered x rays during 1895

• He observed a fluorescent glow of crystals on a table near his tube. This tube consisted of a glass envelope bulb with positive and negative electrodes encapsulated in it

• In the late 1895, one of Roentgen’s first experiments was a film of this wife, Bertha

Heinrich Geissler

• Built the 1st vacuum tube, a sealed glass tube from which most of air had been evacuated (Geissler tube)

• Hittorf-Crookes tube, the Lenard tube: modified version of Geissler tube

Johann Wilhelm Hittorf

• German physicist that used the vacuum tube to study fluorescence

• In 1870, he discovered CATHODE RAYS: a greenish fluorescence discharge

William Crookes

• An english chemist who redesigned the vacuum tube and discovered that cathode rays were streams of charged particles during late 1870s

Philip Lenard

• He discovered that cathode rays could penetrate a thin window of aluminum foil built into the walls of the glass tubes and cause fluorescent screens to glow

Otto Walkhoff

• German dentist who made the 1st dental radiograph

• He placed a glass photographic plate wrapped in black paper and rubber in his mouth and submitted himself to 25 minutes of x ray exposure

W.J. Morton

• Made the 1st dental radiograph in the United States using a skull

• He also lectured on the usefulness of x rays in dental practice and made the 1st whole body radiography using a 3 × 6 ft sheet of film

C. Edmund Kells

• A New Orleans dentist, is credited with the 1st practical use of radiographs in dentistry in 1896

• Exposed the 1st dental radiograph in the United States using a living person

William H. Rollins

• Boston dentist who developed the 1st dental x ray unit

Frank Van Woert

• A dentist from New York City, was the 1st to use film in intraoral radiography

Howard Riley Raper

• Indiana University professor, established the 1st college course in radiography for dental students