Patent ID: 7471761

Claim:
A method of computing oral bone mineral density using a panoramic x-ray system, comprising the steps of: providing a reference phantom having a known density; obtaining a digital panoramic image of a body part and the reference phantom by revolving an x-ray generator and an opposing x-ray receiver through a plurality of angular positions that define a region of interest while emitting x-rays from the x-ray generator to irradiate the body part and the reference phantom at each of the plurality of angular positions, wherein the reference phantom is disposed in a location free from anatomical features and so as to irradiate the body part with substantially equal x-ray energy as the reference phantom for each of the plurality of angular positions, so that a relative measure of attenuation is ascertained for each of the plurality of angular positions; for each of the plurality of angular positions, establishing a relationship between a region of the image corresponding to a portion of the body part and a region of the image corresponding to the reference phantom using the ascertained relative measure of attenuation; and calculating bone mineral density based upon the established relationships and the known density of the reference phantom.