Objective To explore and analyze the image quality of chest DR examination of children with mental retardation using DR wheelchair. Methods From July 2020 to February 2021, a total of 80 children with mental retardation were included in this study.According to different ways of assistance in examination, they were divided into seated DR wheelchair assisting group (experimental group) and medical staff assisting group (control group).The SPSS 20.0 rank sum test was used to analyze the difference in image quality between the two groups. Results The difference of radiographic images between the two groups was statistically significant (P<0.001).Seated DR wheelchairs assisted patients with mental retardation were with high quality and low rejection rate in their chest DR examination pictures. Conclusions DR wheelchair could help children with mental retardation to take chest DR pictures with high quality, avoid the probability of repeated examination, and provide a reliable method for children with mental retardation and their families to reduce the risk of unnecessary radiation.