Attitude of General and Specialist Dental practitioners towards Radiation Safety Principles

Introduction: The objective of this study was to determine the attitude of dental practitioners towards radiation protection principles and radiographic techniques. We aimed to assess whether dentists’ specialty and university membership impacted the conducts of radiologic practice. Methods: A total of 232 dental offices with intraoral radiographic devices in Mashhad, Iran were randomly selected. Demographic characteristics of dentists as well as radiographic equipment and techniques were recorded. Participants were grouped according to specialty and faculty membership. Chi-square tests were used for statistical analysis and comparison of groups by Statistical Package SPSS v.23. Results: 190 dentists (81.9%) were in general dental practice (GDP) and the remaining 42 (18.1%) worked as specialists in different fields. A significant difference was noted regarding the use of digital sensors between general and specialist dentists (16.8% vs. 35.7%, respectively). Paralleling technique using film holders was employed by 28.6% of specialists and 10% of the general dentists (p<0.05). Half of the specialists used routine thyroid shielding; however, only 28.4% of the GDPs followed this practice (p<0.05). Among the specialists, 19 (45.2%) had faculty membership. Use of a rectangular collimation, long cone, and thyroid shield, except variable exposure time were more common in non-faculty members, although not significantly different. Conclusion: Although most dentists did not follow the standard radiological guidelines, it was noticeable that specialist dentists used more appropriate radiographic techniques. Attention should be focused on under- and postgraduate education and employing strict policies for dental radiologic safety measures.