Radiation Protection in Dental Radiology- The Safe Use of Radiographs in Dental Practice

V. Aarthi Nisha¹, T. Sarumathi¹, V. T. Hemalatha¹, A. Amudhan¹, J. Parthiban²

¹Sree Balaji Dental College And Hospital, Bharath University, Chennai, India. 2Reader, Tagore Dental College And Hospital, Chennai, India.

ABSTRACT: Radiographs have been widely used in dentistry for various reasons such as diagnosis, treatment planning, during the treatment procedures and assessment of treatment outcome. In our routine dental practice dentists practice intraoral radiography in their clinics. The radiograph when made immediately in the dental chair is a real-time diagnostic aid but the dentist should also confirm whether he/she follows all the guidelines and safety precautions of radiation safety while exposing the patient to X-rays so that the deleterious effects of X-rays can be avoided which will be beneficial to both the patient and especially the dentists who have long term exposure to X-rays. Hence in this article we have emphasized on the safety precautions to be followed by the dentists and also the awareness each of us should possess towards the hazards of radiation.

KEYWORDS: Dental radiography; X-rays; Radiation hazards; Safety precautions in dental clinic

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