Patent ID: 7431497

Claim:
A dental X-ray film viewing device comprising: (a) a film reader comprising: a support panel; a film illumination station attached to a first end of said support panel, said film illumination station comprising an illumination housing, a film seat on a wall of said housing, and a diffused white light source disposed within said illumination housing for backlighting said film seat; said film seat comprising a translucent plate and a non-transparent film anchoring wafer disposed against said translucent plate, said film anchoring wafer having an inner opening complimentary to an intra-oral x-ray film thereby forming a translucent film window for seating said x-ray film within said film window, and said film anchoring wafer blocking light from said light source in an area surrounding said x-ray film; and a video camera attached to a second end of said support panel, having lens thereof directed to a center of said film window of said film illumination station; said lens having a distortion at full field less than 3%; and (b) an image display screen connected directly to said video camera of said film reader by a cable, adapted to display an enlarged digital image of said x-ray film using signals transmitted from said video camera directly to said image display screen.