Optimal viewing conditions should allow one to collimate the light, so the light area is restricted to the size of the film. The viewer’s eyes should be blocked to surrounding light to ameliorate perception of details. Also, the ambient light in the room should be dimmed so that more details in the radiographic image can be seen. This is not always feasible in a dental office setting, but efforts should be made to place the view box in a dimmed area of the office.  It is clear that assessing radiographs in a brightly lit dental operatory increases the clinician’s potential to miss diagnostically useful information contained in a radiographic image. Despite the fact that the parents and patients appreciate viewing the radiographic images in the operatory, the initial diagnosis should not be made at the chairside monitor, but rather in an area of the office where the light is dimmed.