Radiology: The Effects of Radiation
Dental Radiography:
• Roughly 20-25 million dental radiographs are taken in the UK annually.
• There are an estimated 10 fatal malignancies a year from dental radiography.
X-ray Effective dose
(mSv)
BW/PA 0.0003-0.022
DPT 0.0027-0.038
USO 0.008
Lateral ceph 0.0022-0.0056
Chest x-ray 0.014
CT abdomen 5.6
Barium swallow 1.5
Barium enema 2.2
, Classification:
• The biologically damaging effects of ionising radiation are classified into two
main categories:
– Tissue reactions
– Stochastic effects
• Tissue reactions can be further divided into early and late effects.
• Stochastic effects can be divided into cancer induction and heritable effects.
Tissue Reactions:
• Damaging effects to the body that will definitely happen from a specific high
dose of radiation.
• Severity of effect proportional to dose received.
• There is a threshold dose below which there is no effect for most tissue
reactions.
• Early tissue reactions appear shortly after exposure, such as reddening of the
skin.
• Late tissue reactions may occur months or even years after exposure, such
as with osteoradionecrosis.
Dental Radiography:
• Roughly 20-25 million dental radiographs are taken in the UK annually.
• There are an estimated 10 fatal malignancies a year from dental radiography.
X-ray Effective dose
(mSv)
BW/PA 0.0003-0.022
DPT 0.0027-0.038
USO 0.008
Lateral ceph 0.0022-0.0056
Chest x-ray 0.014
CT abdomen 5.6
Barium swallow 1.5
Barium enema 2.2
, Classification:
• The biologically damaging effects of ionising radiation are classified into two
main categories:
– Tissue reactions
– Stochastic effects
• Tissue reactions can be further divided into early and late effects.
• Stochastic effects can be divided into cancer induction and heritable effects.
Tissue Reactions:
• Damaging effects to the body that will definitely happen from a specific high
dose of radiation.
• Severity of effect proportional to dose received.
• There is a threshold dose below which there is no effect for most tissue
reactions.
• Early tissue reactions appear shortly after exposure, such as reddening of the
skin.
• Late tissue reactions may occur months or even years after exposure, such
as with osteoradionecrosis.
