A study on reducing radiation dose in dental radiography for children, 1

X-ray examination is one of the effective diagnoses in dentistry. And it is difficult to conduct a precise dental examination without X-ray films, especially in pedodontics. However, radiography may be attended with many radiation injury, and we must perform the complete protection of patients when taking X-ray radiography for children, because their tissues are much more sensitive to radiation than those of adult. Children have some radiosensitive immature organs such as the thyroid gland, eyes (crystalline lens), gonad etc., accordingly, it is very important to protect them from exposure of X-rey. It has been suggested that the thyroid gland is the most sensitive to radiation among many organs. We, therefore, establish a protector for children's thyroid gland as soon as possible. In this study, the auther had designed X-ray protecting rubber sheet which had various lead contents, for finding an optimum condition of the protector. Additionally, the sheltering effects were compared among ready-made protectors. 1. It was satisfactory for complete sheltering of direct beam that the rubber sheet contained 0.375 mmPb, 0.5 mmPb, and 0.75 mmPb, at the tubevoltage of 65 kVp, 70 kVp and 80 kVp, respectively. 2. The radiolucency ratio of Hagoromo Apron containing 0.25 mmPb was 0 % at 65 kVp, and that of X-ray Shield containing 0.50 mmPb was 0 % at 65, 70 kVp and 80 kVp too. 3. Among the ready-made aprons, there was one which had less lead content than the indicated value. (author)