FDI Diagnostic Imaging Exam 1 Practice Exam 2026 – Your All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

When dense metal crowns are present, they interact with the X-ray beam in a way that changes the beam’s quality and the image it creates. The X-ray beam is polychromatic, containing photons of a range of energies. A high-density metal crown absorbs more of the lower-energy photons, so the beam that emerges is enriched in higher-energy photons—this is beam hardening. The hardening, along with the heavy attenuation at and around the crown, produces nonuniform shading and streaks that extend into the surrounding area. These beam-hardening and streak artifacts can obscure adjacent teeth and surrounding structures, making it harder to see details like caries, cracks, or bone changes near the crown. The other options don’t fit: a high-density crown does not reduce patient dose, it does not enhance contrast of neighboring tissues, and it certainly does not produce an image with no artifacts.