Evaluation Of Knowledge, Behavior And Attitude About Radiation Safety And Radiation Protection In Dentistry

Aims: Dental imaging is done frequently by x-ray in dentistry practice. Dentists should have knowledge about radiation protection in order to protect themselves, the patients, and the environment from the possible damage of radiation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate radiation security knowledge and behavior and create awareness of these issues among intern dentistry students and dentists. Materials and Methods: 151 intern dentists, 86 dentists, and 83 specialist dentists participated in the survey. The survey was prepared through Google forms. The questionnaire includes questions about the demographic characteristics of the participants, their level of knowledge about radiation safety, and their attitudes and behaviors. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 28.0(IBM, Chicago, IL).
Results: From the participants of the survey; 46.6%(149) chose the rectangular collimator, 20.9%(67) used a 40 cm cone, and 50.3%(161) of them used a parallel technique and preferred to reduce the radiation dose. 46.6%(149) of the participants chose bone marrow as the most radiosensitive tissue. Of the participants, 9.1%(29) of them did not know about the As-Low-As-Reasonably- Achievable(ALARA) principle. It was learned that 33.4%(107) of the participants wanted their patients to hold the film with their own hands during the periapical radiographs.
Conclusion: According to the results of the survey, it has been observed that intern dentists and specialist radiologists have a higher awareness of radiation safety compared to dentists and other specialist dentists. However, considering the damage of x-rays to vital tissues, it is found that, this awareness is not sufficient and needs to be increased.