Patient risk from interproximal radiography

Abstract

Computer simulation methods for determining patient dose from dental radiography have demonstrated that patient risk from a two-film interproximal examination ranges from 1.1 × 10 −8 to 3.4 × 10 −7 using 90-kVp beams, depending on film speed, projection technique, and age and sex of the patient. Further, changing from a short-cone round-beam to a long-cone technique with rectangular collimation reduces risk by a factor of 2.9, independent of other factors.