Intraoral dental x-ray radiography in Bosnia and Herzegovina: study for revising diagnostic reference level value

Abstract

This paper presents the study that would allow a revision of the currently valid diagnostic reference level in intraoral dental X-ray radiography in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The study was conducted for six procedures that are used to capture incisor, premolar and molar teeth, of both maxilla and mandible, in adults. Measurements were performed on 41 intraoral X-ray devices, 20 of which were systems with digital image receptor and 21 film-based X-ray systems. In this study, incident air kerma (K-i) and air kerma-area product (P-KA) were used as patient dose descriptors. The third quartile (Q(3)) of the measured incident air-kerma values was used to compare with the current national diagnostic reference level (DRL) for intraoral dental procedures. The obtained results of Q(3) for both types of devices, with film-based and digital image receptors, have shown that the third quartile values are lower (3.5 and 1.2 mGy, respectively) than the current national DRL (7.0 mGy). Hence, new data can be used to re-establish the diagnostic reference levels in intraoral dental X-ray examinations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.