Guidance

Hand-held dental X-ray equipment: guidance on safe use

This report (PHE-CRCE-023) gives guidance on safe use of hand-held dental X-ray equipment in accordance with UK radiation protection legislation.

• From: Public Health England
• Published: 9 February 2016

Documents

PHE-CRCE-023: guidance on the safe use of hand-held dental X-ray equipment

Ref: ISBN 978-0-85951-778-2, PHE publications gateway number 2015597

PDF, 648 KB, 37 pages

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Details

Public Health England’s Dental X-ray Protection Services have noted a steady increase in both the numbers of hand-held X-ray sets used in UK general dental practice for routine intra-oral radiography and the number of models of hand-held X-ray sets available to dentists.

Investigations indicate that it is clinically practicable to use hand-held dental X-ray equipment for most of the radiographic examinations commonly undertaken with wall-mounted X-ray equipment, albeit with some adjustments to procedural aspects of radiography such as patient positioning.

Safeguards for people who might be exposed as a result of the equipment being used in locations remote from the dental practice, such as care homes, should be considered.

This publication proposes a safety standard for the design and construction of dental X-ray equipment that is intended to be used hand-held and provides guidance to assist all people involved with hand-held dental X-ray equipment to work with it safely and in accordance with UK radiation protection legislation.

Published 9 February 2016