This invention relates to a method for de-noising digital radiographic images based upon a wavelet-domain Hidden Markov Tree (HMT) model. The method uses the Anscombe's transformation to adjust the original image to a Gaussian noise model. The image is then decomposed in different sub-bands of frequency and orientation responses using a dual-tree complex wavelet transform, and the HMT is used to model the marginal distribution of the wavelet coefficients. Two different methods were used to denoise the wavelet coefficients. Finally, the modified wavelet coefficients are transformed back into the original domain to get the de-noised image.