Scatter radiation is defined as:

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Scatter radiation comes from photons that have interacted with matter and are deflected from their original path. In dental imaging, when the primary X-ray beam hits tissue, interactions like Compton scattering cause the photon to change direction and lose some energy. The photon that exits the tissue along a new path is scatter radiation. It’s not the unaltered primary beam (which travels straight), and it isn’t radiation emitted by the patient. While some secondary radiation is absorbed in tissue, scatter specifically refers to those deflected photons emerging from the interaction.