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Operator Exposure to Scatter Radiation from a Portable Hand‐held Dental Radiation Emitting Device (Aribex™ NOMAD™) While Making 915 Intraoral Dental Radiographs *
Author(s) -
Danforth Robert A.,
Herschaft Edward E.,
Leonowich John A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00960.x
Subject(s) - nuclear medicine , automatic exposure control , medicine , radiation exposure , dental radiography , effective dose (radiation) , radiography , radiation protection , radiation , environmental science , radiology , optics , physics
Operator exposure to backscatter radiation while using an Aribex™ NOMAD™ radiation emitting device (a portable, self‐contained, cordless, hand‐held dental X‐ray unit) was determined while the operator employed various typical and atypical use scenarios during the exposure of 715 digital and/or film‐based dental radiographs and 200 study control exposures. Study data was compared to the radiation safety occupational exposure annual Maximum Permissive Dose (MPD) of 50 mSv (5000 mrem) to determine the possible exposure risk to an unprotected operator using this device. The results showed the reproductive organs received the highest dose and the thyroid the least. The average operator whole body dose for the study was determined to be 0.047 mSv (4.47 mrem) or 0.09% of the annual MPD. Extrapolating the data as an expression of averaged annual operator exposure resulted in a whole body dose of 0.4536 mSv (45.36 mrem) or 0.9% of the annual MPD, These results are well below established occupation exposure limits and are compatible with those published by the manufacturer.