dental x rays are strictly a man‐made entity.

Dental x‐ray equipment is manufactured by

multiple companies, each offering varying
styles, sizes, features and prices for their own
particular units. The physical dental x‐ray unit
primarily consists of two components. There is
a control panel with a circuit board to control
the kilovoltage (kV) , milliamperage (mA)
and time. In addition, there is a tubehead that
physically houses the x‐ray tube, filter, collimator
and transformers (Fig. C1). The tubehead
and control panel may be physically
separate (e.g. wall‐mounted x‐ray unit) or they
may be combined (e.g. hand‐held x‐ray unit).
Individual mA and kV controls are features that
vary from one unit to another. Higher quality
x‐ray units tend to have independent controls
to modify the kV, mA and exposure time while
basic intraoral units may have fixed or a very
limited number of mA and kV settings that an
operator may alter. All intraoral x‐ray units
allow the operator to modify the exposure time.
Extraoral x‐ray units (eg. panoramic) generate x
rays in a similar way to intraoral x‐ray units but
are physically very different.
The heart of an x‐ray unit is the x‐ray tube
(Fig. C2). An x‐ray tube primarily consists of a
cathode and an anode . The operator’s
simple act of powering on a dental x‐ray unit
(i.e. on–off switch) sends a low voltage current
to the cathode which results in the production
of a cloud of electrons at the cathode. The x‐ray
unit is in a stand‐by mode at this time