Dental x-ray diagnostics installation for producing panoramic exposures of slices in the skull

Claim 1

In a dental x-ray diagnostics installation for the production of panoramic exposures of slices taken in a skull of a patient particularly those in the region of the jaw, said installation comprising an exposure unit with an x-ray tube being pivotable around an axis and displaceable in a plane extending perpendicular to the axis, a film holder unit lying opposite the exposure unit and movable relative thereto, support means including a head holder arranged between the two units for holding the head in a fixed position, control means for first controlling the pivoting and displacement motion of the exposure unit relative to the head holder of the support means, and for secondly controlling the movement of the film holder relative to the x-ray tube, the control means including input means for selecting a curvature of a slice to be exposed so that the control means can control the various movements in view of the selected curvature the improvements comprising said input means having a graphical input means with means for a human operator to graphically draw the selected curvature of a slice for the shape of the teeth and jaw of a patient as a continuous curved stroke and said graphical input means having means to directly input said graphically drawn selected curvature of a slice to the control means to control the relative movement of the exposure unit to the head holder and the relative movement of the film holder to the x-ray tube.