Observations on the Dose from Dental X-ray Procedures with a Note on Radiography of the Nasal Bones

Since it may be many years before the magnitude of the hazard to man from diagnostic X-ray examinations becomes known, it is obviously desirable to limit the amount of radiation received by both operator and patient to the minimum required for a satisfactory examination. The potential hazards from the use of X rays have been well summarised (MRC Report, 1956; United Nations Report, 1958) and will not be repeated here. Some of the precautions which may be taken in dental radiography have been recently described by Blackman and Greening (1957) and by Gorson, Halvorsen, Lieberman and Aitken (1959). In the present paper we endorse the precautions they recommend and give some additional data which may suggest ways still further to reduce the dose to both patient and operator. Dental practice usually requires the radiography of only small areas of the body with the use of lowpower equipment and as has already been indicated (Ardran, 1957a) this should mean that the radiation dose received by both patient and operator should be small compared with that from other diagnostic procedures. The maximum permissible cumulative dose for radiation workers in the United Kingdom is 100 mr per week average or about 50 times the background dose (Code of Practice, 1957; I.C.R.P., 1959).