Is there an increase in radiation exposure to the population due to diagnostic dental radiography. 1

From 1967 - 1976, altogether 66,783 radiographs were taken from 74,209 new-admitted outpatients at the Stomatological Clinic of the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. Up to 1973, the number of radiographs varied, with a mean of 83 radiographs per 100 patients. In the following year, the number of radiographs rose to 111 per 100 patients. This value remained constant during the years 1974 to 1976 and was 25% greater than the mean for the period 1967 to 1976. The intra-oral dental radiographs amount to 54% of the overall number of radiographs, and this contribution is still increasing in spite of the installation of a panoramic X-ray apparatus in 1970. The radiation exposure was largest to patients aged between 20 and 40 years. The mean annual skin dose in the region of the skull was 0,8 rem per caput, and the gonadal dose was 0,08 mrem. On an average, 0.9 radiographs were taken of each new-admitted patient. The partial genetically significant dose of 0.00054 mrem thus applied to the population in the reproductive age is negligible (0.0140/00) as compared to the internationally assumed genetically significant dose of 38 mrem applied by medical diagnostic measures. (author)