Dental CBCT radiation shielding

Dental CBCT Radiation Shielding – What is Required?

Dental cone beam CT (CBCT) scanners are now becoming much more prevalent. Working procedures, precautions and construction techniques which are well established for dental radiography will in many circumstances not be adequate for CBCT. Relevant considerations are:

There is potentially a vast range in weekly equipment workload, from a lower throughput surgery setting through to a specialist or hospital setting. This will have a significant impact on the extend to which shielding is required. Often of course the future workload is speculative and so some degree of conversative design assumption will need to be agreed at the planning stage.

The equipment generally operates at higher beam energy (kV) than intra-oral equipment, resultantly conventional plasterboard stud wall shielding is highly unlikely to be adequate. CBCT therefore tends to be installed in dedicated rooms, which will require either solid construction (the adequacy and continuity of which must be assessed) or alternatively lead shielding. Many builders may not be familiar with working with lead products in this context – it is important to ensure that continuity of the shielding is ensured (e.g. around joins of lead sheets and cut-outs for electrical back-boxes etc) during the build process.

Because of the higher levels of scatter radiation generated, operators will generally require a protected location from which to operate the equipment. Generally this is from outside the CBCT, with the operator observing the patient either via a shielded viewing window or alternatively using a camera system.

When planning to install a CBCT machine, it is important to contact your RPA early in the design process to ensure adequate protective measures are specified and accommodated within the design. The Ionising Radiations Regulations requires the RPA to conduct a prior review of the plans for facilities.

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