Aspects pertinent to dental radiology

The author puts forward the hypothesis that dental radiography is performed much more frequently and thus leads to a considerably greater number of exposures than generally assumed. Particular features of this branch of radiology are the low average age of patients examined and the mobility of the radiation sources. The method of panoramic sectional imaging, in which the dose to patients remains within acceptable limits, is used on an increasingly broader basis. This does, however, by no means obviate the need for an adequate radiological training of dentists and quality controls of the systems used. (MG)