Requesting radiographs Flashcards
What are the 4 official personnel names, relevant to diagnostic radiography?
- Employer
- Referrer
- Practitioner (According to the regulations)
- Operator
What are the 3 principles of radiation protection?
- Justification
- Optimisation - ALARP
- Dose limitation - for radiation workers and members of the public, NOT patients
Why does dose limitation not refer to patients?
- No dose limitation for patients as if you justify the examination correctly then optimise it the net benefit to the patient outweighs the potential risk of damage to them
What are the general principles of justification of an individual exposure to radiation?
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Who is the referrer?
- ‘Referrer’ means a registered health care professional who is entitled in accordance with the employer’s procedures to refer individuals for exposure to a practitioner
Who is the ‘referrer’ at the dental hospital?
- Dentist supervising on the clinic
What must the referrer do prior to placing a referral?
Must take a history and conduct a clinical examination of the patient
Who does the referrer make the referral to?
- Refers to the ‘practitioner’ (IRMER practitioner)
- Must provide certain information to the IRMER practitioner
Who takes the responsibility for justifying and authorising the examination (x-ray)?
- The practitioner
What is the required information of the referrer in TrakCare? (4)
- Unique ID of patient (name, DOB, address, unique CHI number)
- Clinical info to justify exposure
- Info on pregnancy etc is relevant (if there is info that you think would be useful for someone to know put it in e.g. if you patient is hard of hearing etc)
- Unique identifying signature - TrakCare captures dentist logged
What are the considerations when possible taking an x-ray on a pregnant patient? (5)
- The urgency of the exposure, where appropriate, in cases involving - an individual where pregnancy cannot be excluded, in particular if abdominal and pelvic regions are involved, taking into account the exposure of both the person concerned and any unborn child:
- In dentistry the abdominal and pelvic regions are not irradiated by the primary beam
- BUT emotions are important - can delay if considered prudent
- Discuss with clinician and patient (make a note that the patient is apprehensive)
- Inform radiology if requesting radiographs - note it within your TrakCare request
Read these
- patient info leaflet (moodle)
- Selection criteria for dental radiography
In order to determine the caries risk status of a patient what should we consider? (7)
- Social history
- Medical history
- Dietary habits
- Use of fluoride
- Plaque control
- Saliva
- Clinical experience
How frequently should bitewings be taken for high caries risk individuals?
- Primary and permanent - six-monthly
- Recommends 6 monthly until there is no new caries and hopefully patient has moved into the moderate level
How frequently should bitewings be taken for moderate caries risk individuals?
- Annually unless risk status alters