[buro9]

The last time I was in my local dentist I was the first patient of the day and the Windows machine needed rebooting as it didn't see the USB dongle. We got chatting about the fact that it was Windows XP, and her fear that the machine would die but she couldn't upgrade as that specific X-Ray machine was only supported by Win XP (and wasn't purchased too many years ago - the company selling the X-Ray dongle provided the whole solution).

I thought of the above solution whilst there, asked her if anyone did such a thing, and the answer was no-one she knew of. I'm happily employed, but she was fairly desperate to pay that much immediately if it could mitigate the risk of that equipment failing on her suddenly and with a very expensive bill.

[kohanz]

My impression is that dentists are a lot like other sole proprietors, you will find some that keep up with technology and others that don't. I have visited fairly high-tech dentistry offices, with technology that appears to have been developed within the last 5 years at most. I also have a few friends who are (recently graduated) dentists and they are driving adoption of newer technology in their offices. Your local dentist may just not be informed of what's available. A quick search shows that Dentistry SAAS does exist (http://www.curvedental.com/).

[Scarblac]

X-Ray machines are probably heavily regulated, would it even be legal for a third party to change that hardware setup?

[TurnipTheBeet]

Most of the machines that you'll find in a small office are actually two separate devices. There's the x-ray emitter and an x-ray sensor. The sensor replaces the x-ray film that had to be manually developed, and is often just a USB device that integrates with whatever imaging application is in place. The sensors can be installed by anyone for the most part.