The goal of this study was to determine the acquisition parameters for a low-dose multi-slice CT protocol and to compare the effective dose and the image quality of this low-dose protocol with the image quality of a clinical multi-slice CT protocol, routinely used for visualisation of the head. The low-dose protocol was derived from a clinical multi-slice CT protocol by lowering mA s and kV and increasing the pitch. The low-dose protocol yielded a dose reduction from 1.5 to 0.18 mSv for a multi-slice CT scan of the whole head, whereas noise in the low-dose CT images was increased. For bone segmentation, noise could be reduced by use of a non-linear edge preserving smoothing filter. Tests on ESP and skull phantom indicated that the accuracy of the measurements on low-dose CT is acceptable for image-based planning of maxillofacial and oral implant surgery, reducing the dose by a factor of 8.

A rather wide range of patient radiation doses can be found for digital panoramic units. There is a tendency for lower effective doses for digital compared with analogue panoramic units, reported in previous studies.

A survey was performed among Belgian dentists to evaluate the use and management of digital radiographic equipment. The majority of respondents work as general dental practitioners. One out of eight sets of equipment for extraoral exposures is digital. For intraoral radiography, 30% of the equipment is digital. While exposure time is reduced by about 50% for digital intraoral radiography compared with conventional radiography, no differences can be found between different conventional film speed classes. Appropriate collimation of the radiation beam is only sparingly used. Beam aiming devices to hold the film and position the radiation beam are not used by the majority of dentists. While 25% of the respondents stand behind a protective wall during exposure, 8% of dentists remain next to the patient during exposure while assisting in holding the film inside the mouth. A minority of the latter practitioners wear lead aprons.

Assuming that 500 panoramic radiographs per year are taken by a dental practitioner at 1 m distance from the panoramic unit, he or she will receive an annual additional organ effective dose between 5 microSv and 15 microSv for the thyroid gland and between 5 microSv and 40 microSv for the gonads, depending on the type of digital panoramic unit.