Reevaluating the necessity to wearing personal dosimeters in dental radiology

Lowness of the registered doses by the personal dosimeters (film badge in Iran) for most of dental radiology practitioners has made some of them doubtful about the rightness of the employed dosimetry method. On the other hand, some relatively considerable occupational exposures in dental radiology have been reported. These two opposite facts propose a comprehensive statistical and analytical research on the exposure levels in this practice. A thorough investigation on the available personal dosimetry data for dental radiology was carried out to define the occupational dose distribution of the practitioners. Furthermore, employing a supplementary assessment through questioners on the cases exceeding the investigation dose level, validity of such cases was verified. The results showed that more than 90% of the dental radiology practitioners receive doses near to the background level and 99% of them receive doses less that the annual dose limit for the public (1mSv/y). The investigations showed that only few cases have been registered doses over the investigation level, out of which, only one case has been the real exposure of the person to the ionizing radiation. In sum, occupational exposure in dental radiology is negligible and needlessness of the practice to personal dosimeters can be concluded.