Absorbed dose analysis of dental cone-beam computed tomography using Monte Carlo simulations

The calculation of the absorbed dose distributions due to dental CBCT imaging was performed using an anthropomorphic phantom. Higher doses were delivered to bones than other tissues. Since bones have a relatively higher x-ray attenuation coefficient than tissues, more x-ray interactions would have occurred and thus higher doses were delivered. The proportion contributing to total dose was higher in the scattered dose than in the primary dose. This is because the dose due to photoelectric absorption after scattering events is included in the scattered dose and the Compton scattering was more dominant than photoelectric absorption in soft tissues, which constitute the majority of the human body.