Abstract
Background Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) has been widely used in dental imaging and became an essential imaging modality for many specialties, such as periodontology, oral surgery, oral diagnosis, orthodontics, and endodontics.1,2 It has been reported that CBCT involves a low amount of radiation exposure compared with multidetector computed tomography (MDCT); however, advanced CBCT units have a variety of scan settings that have to be considered with regard to patient exposure.3 Objectives The aim of this study was to assess the dosimetry levels in a CBCT device (i-CAT FLX, Imaging Sciences, Hatfield, PA, USA) when operating on various scan protocols (e.g., voxel sizes and fields of view [FOV]). Materials and Methods Exposure doses resulting from all combinations of scan protocols available on the CBCT machine were recorded with a Radcal MDH 1015, using a 10x5-3CT pencil ionization chamber and a 16-cm cylindrical polymethylmethacrylate phantom. Measurements performed on different field sizes and scan settings at different phantom locations were used in the study. The phantom was exposed 3 times at the same location to calculate a reliable measurement of the radiation by the ionization chamber. Doses were read by an oral and maxillofacial radiology resident. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's test were performed to identify any significant differences at an α-value of P = 0.05. Results The dosimeter reading values increased as the size of FOV increased. The Quick scan+ protocol presented the least exposure among all scan protocols. There were no statistically significant differences among voxel sizes at the same scan settings. Discussion/Conclusions The exposure doses from the studied scanner are substantially dependent on the selected scan protocol and location within the phantom. The reduction of the dose with acceptable clinical image quality should be obtained by a proper selection of the scan settings in the CBCT machine.
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