Abstract
Dental imaging is one of the most common types of diagnostic radiological procedures in modern medicine. We introduce a comprehensive table of organ doses received by patients in dental imaging procedures extracted from literature and a new web application to visualize the summarized dose information. We analyzed articles, published after 2010, from PubMed on organ and effective doses delivered by dental imaging procedures, including intraoral radiography, panoramic radiography, and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), and summarized doses by dosimetry method, machine model, patient age, and technical parameters. Mean effective doses delivered by intraoral, 1.32 (0.60–2.56) μSv, and panoramic, 17.93 (3.47–75.00) μSv, procedures were found to be about1% and 15% of that delivered by CBCT, 121.09 (17.10–392.20) μSv, respectively. In CBCT imaging, child phantoms received about 29% more effective dose than the adult phantoms received. The effective dose of a large field of view (FOV) (>150 cm2) was about 1.6 times greater than that of a small FOV (<50 cm2). The maximum CBCT effective dose with a large FOV for children, 392.2 μSv, was about 13% of theeffective dose that a person receives on average every year from natural radiation, 3110 μSv. Monte Carlo simulations of representative cases of the three dental imaging procedures were then conducted to estimate and visualize the dose distribution within the head. The user-friendly interactive web application (available at http://dentaldose.org) receives user input, such as the number of intraoral radiographs taken, and displays total organ and effective doses, dose distribution maps, and a comparison with other medical and natural sources of radiation. The web dose calculator provides a practical resource for patients interested in understanding the radiation doses delivered by dental imaging procedures.
Highlights
Dental imaging is one of the most common types of diagnostic radiological procedures taken by the average person
We obtained articles from PubMed, published after 2010, on organ and effective doses delivered by dental imaging procedures including intraoral radiography, panoramic radiography, and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), and summarized doses by dosimetry method, machine model, patient age, and technical parameters
Different types of dosimeters were used: the thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) (86%), the optically stimulated luminescent dosimeter (OSLD) (7%), the Gafchromic film (5%), and the metal-oxide-silicon field-effect transistor (MOSFET) (2%). e physical head phantoms used for measurements included the Alderson Radiation erapy (ART) phantom (Radiology Support Devices Inc., Long Beach, CA) (70%), the ATOM adult and child phantoms (CIRS, Norfolk, VA) (20%), and CDP-R1 (Chengdu Fangtuo Simulation Technology Company Limited, China) (10%)
Summary
Dental imaging is one of the most common types of diagnostic radiological procedures taken by the average person. Popular dental imaging procedures include intraoral radiography, which has the longest history of use, followed by panoramic radiography, and more recently, cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) [1]. A simple two-dimensional (2D) projection imaging, is often used to detect periodontal disease and cavities at regular dental check-ups. A more comprehensive 2D image that combines a series of narrow 2D images, has been widely used to provide a wide range of information about the dentition and jaws. Introduced in the late 1990s, three-dimensional (3D) imaging technology, CBCT, offers a comprehensive set of cross-sectional images, the ability of vertical scanning, and real-time intraoperative assessment. Ere are concerns about the increasing use of imaging procedures as well as the resulting radiation dose, especially for pediatric patients [2, 3] All three procedures expose different portions of the head, from small parts of the teeth to the whole lower head, to ionizing radiation. ere are concerns about the increasing use of imaging procedures as well as the resulting radiation dose, especially for pediatric patients [2, 3]
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