The responsibility of the dental profession in reducing exposure to ionizing radiation

Journal Article · Wed Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1961 · Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-4220(61)90293-6· OSTI ID:4748609

Wuehrmann, Arthur H.

Four areas of responsibility in the field are cited: to recognize that radiologic health responsibilities actually exist; to provide educational opportunities for the members of the profession in areas of radiologic health pertinent to dentistry; to be certain that dentists avail themselves of such educational opportunities and use this new knowledge in routine office work, and to defend dentistry's right as a member of the health science team to make its own decisions as to when and how much ionizing radiation should be used. While American dentistry contributes minor amounts of gonadal radiation per person, it does add, through the use of its 95,000 x-ray machines, to the gonadal radiation of the population as a whole. It is estimated that l mr of gonadal radiation is produced for each r of facial exposure. Thus a total of 50 r is produced per complete mouth x ray, with a maximum gonadal dose of 50 mr. This dose could presumably be reduced by a factor of 4 if the fastest films were used. The daily gonadal dose being distributed by dentists to the total American population is between 76 and 6000 r (20 x 0.04 mr per film of gonadal radiation x 95,000 = 76 r; 20 x 3.16 mr per film of gonadal radiation x 95,000 = 6000 r). On the basis of a population of 180 million and an estimated 3.5 r of background radiation in a 32-year period to the average person in the population, the total background radiation delivered per day to the entire population is approximates 57,500 r. On a percentage basis, therefore, dentistry appears to add to the population's total daily gonadal dose from 0.1 to 10% of that being received daily through background radiation. It is probably reasonable to estimate that dentistry is presently adding about 7% to the average person's background dose. This figure is likely to decrease as more dentists utilize radiation-reducing methods.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• NSA Number: NSA-17-006349
• OSTI ID: 4748609
• Journal Information: Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Journal Name: Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 14; ISSN 0030-4220
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY
BACKGROUND
BONES
DIAGNOSIS
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
GONADS
LABORATORY EQUIPMENT
MAN
PHOTOGRAPHIC FILM
POPULATIONS
QUANTITY RATIO
RADIATION DOSES
RADIATION PROTECTION
TEETH
X RADIATION