Guidance Notes for Dental Practitioners on the Safe Use of X-Ray Equipment

Author(s):

n/a

Summary:

The preface to the document is given below and provides the background to the need for, and production of, the Guidance Notes.

Nairn Wilson, the President of the General Dental Council, has provided a Foreword to the Guidance Notes.

The copyright of the Guidance Notes resides with the NRPB on behalf of the organisations represented by the Working Party.

Link to supplementary text below.

Price:

Users are invited to print off their own copies of this document from the website.

Colour copies can be provided, but please note that a flat-rate administrative charge of £10.00 per copy, to cover photocopying and postage costs, is payable when such a request is made.

PDF download:

The full document

Guidance for Dental Practitioners: Safe use of X ray equipment (PDF, 723 KB)

Preface

Dental radiographic examinations represent one of the most frequently undertaken radiological investigations in the UK. A survey for the period 1997-98 estimated that dentists were taking 19 ;million intra-oral radiographs each year and more than 2.9 million panoramic radiographs. The effective dose delivered to the patient per radiograph is very small but the collective dose is significant because of the large number of radiographs that are taken.

New general recommendations from the International Commission on Radiological Protection were issued in 1991 as ICRP Publication 60. As a result, revised Euratom Directives were published and addressed the protection of workers and the general public (in 1996), and patient protection (in 1997). These Directives had to be implemented by member states of the EU by 13 May 2000, and this has resulted in the UK in the creation of two new sets of regulations:

• the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999 (IRR99), which relate principally to the protection of workers and the public, but also address the equipment aspects of patient protection.
• The Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2000 (IR(ME)R2000), which relate to patient protection.

These Guidance Notes for Dental Practitioners have been drafted by a small Working Party representing the organisations listed below and the content should be regarded as representative of good working practice:

• British Dental Association
• British Society of Dental and Maxillofacial Radiology
• Royal College of Radiologists
• Faculty of General Dental Practitioners (UK) of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
• Health and Safety Executive
• Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine
• National Radiological Protection Board

The Working Party wishes to thank the Standing Dental Advisory Committee of the Department of Health for its support of the technical content of the Guidance Notes, and to gratefully acknowledge the Department of Health's decision to fund both the publishing and distribution of the final document.

The aim is to provide dental practitioners with a convenient publication upon which to evaluate and base their compliance with those parts of the new regulations that apply to the use of x-rays in a dental practice. The drafting was undertaken under an informal agreement between the British Dental Association (BDA), the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) and the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB). IPEM have revised the more general Guidance Notes that relate to both Medical and Dental uses of ionising radiation and which apply principally to the hospital environment.

Last reviewed: 19 December 2008