Abstract: Objective To investigate how to digitize dental film during the construction of picture archiving and communication system（PACS） for the stomatological hospital. Methods Digitization of dental films was achieved through direct way （digital radiology） or indirect way （computed radiology）. Digitized dental image was archived to the server of PACS. The doctors′ workstation read these image data from the server of PACS. Results The dental picture processing software installed in the doctors′ workstation must support DICOM Query/Retrieve function in order to search and to acquire the dental image from the server of PACS. The different companies′ software were not compatible, so they must be transformed in PACS. However the view software in PACS could not show tooth positions. Conclusion During ordering and setting up PACS, all the devices connected to PACS should be tested in order to work well, otherwise the software would conflict among different systems.

Key words: picture archiving and communication system, dental film, digitizing