Personal radiation monitoring badges in dentistry

Are personal radiation dosimetry (monitoring) badges required in dental practices?

Personal dosimetry (wearing of radiation monitoring badges) used to be more prevalent in dentistry – so what has happened?
To begin, the inherent safety features of dental x-ray equipment has improved. In addition, practices are now required to appoint a Radiation Protection Adviser who will support assessing the risks and also review of equipment test data to confirm that equipment is working a correct and safe manner. Further to that, with the advent of digital imaging it has been possible to substantially reduce patient radiation exposures – this by inference means the potential radiation exposure to staff has correspondingly reduce.
Personal dosimetry is not warranted for dental radiology where a risk assessment, performed by the RPA in conjunction with the practice, indicates that staff are not expected to receive a dose in excess of 1 mSv per year. The risk assessment should estimate the annual operator dose based on realistic workloads and the types of equipment in use.
Thanks to the combination of the above factors, that situation is now very rare.