An initial study was performed to demonstrate the feasibility of pseudocolor contrast enhancement technique in digital subtraction radiography (DSR). DSR is an electronic image processing technique that has been shown to be of greater diagnostic value in the detection of small periodontal bone lesions than conventional radiography. Pseudocolor enhancement involves selectively assigning a unique color to each shade of gray present in a black-and-white subtracted image. Two image enhancement techniques were developed and tested in a phantom system consisting of extracted teeth set in blocks of plaster mixed with sawdust to simulate trabecular bone. It was found that experimentally induced periodontal lesions were more readily detected by the average clinician in both types of enhanced subtraction images than unenhanced subtractions. Furthermore, both enhancement techniques were of significantly greater diagnostic value for lesions smaller than 1.0 mm (p less than 0.001). The technique that colored an isolated area of interest was significantly more diagnostic at all depths tested (p less than 0.001 at 0.5 and 1.0 mm, and p less than 0.05 at 0.5 mm). Contrast enhancement may be a significant aid to the average clinician for the interpretation of DSR and the detection of small periodontal defects.