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Welcome to week 3

Andrew Gulson welcomes learners to week 3 of the course and introduces the topics to be covered this week.
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Hello again. You’ve now completed the first two weeks of the course, and we’re hoping that you’re finding it enjoyable and interesting. At this stage, you’ve already learned about the nature and hazards of X-radiation, radiation doses and how we measure them, what we can do to protect people from radiation exposure, and the equipment used in dental radiography. We’ve also introduced the main requirements of legislation that’s in place to protect people who work with ionising radiation and those who undergo medical exposures to ionising radiation.
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The theme of week three is practical protection from X-radiation, and so we’ll now return to look at X-ray sets and ancillary equipment in a bit more detail, focusing on the features that provide much of the radiation protection needs of patients. We’ll then take a look at the working procedures that support these physical protection measures before discussing the personal protective equipment, or PPE, that’s available to protect patients from exposure to X-radiation and when its use is and isn’t appropriate. Having looked at the protection of patients, we’ll then turn our attention to the radiation protection needs of dental staff.
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To an extent, this relies on the radiation protection measures for patients being effective, but other factors are also important here, including the design features of rooms containing X-ray equipment. Working procedures are important for the radiation safety of staff, too, and these will be discussed before rounding off the week with an article on PPE and when staff should use it.

Welcome to week 3 of the Radiation Protection in Dental Practice course.

In weeks 1 and 2 you have covered basic radiation concepts and the planning required before work with X-ray equipment commences, as well as introducing the legislation in place for work with ionising radiation.

Week 3 will focus on the protection measures for patients and staff to optimise exposure to X-radiation and the working procedures to support these measures. The protective features of X-ray equipment will also be reviewed in more detail.

Please continue to contribute to discussions and share your experiences in the comments.

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Dental Radiography: Radiation Protection in Dental Practice

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