Legislation
The current legislation affecting the use of radiation equipment in dental practice includes:
Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017 (IRR17)
This deals with equipment requirements and the protection of workers and the public and is enforced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017 (IR(ME)R17)
These are the requirements for minimising the risk to patients and are enforced by the relevant authority for each country:
- Care Quality Commission (CQC, England)
- Inspector for IR(ME)R warranted by Scottish Ministers
- Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW)
- Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA, Northern Ireland)
Guidance
Guidance on implementing the new legislation has yet to be published but your Radiation Protection Adviser can advise on specific requirements. Other useful guidance includes:
- IR(ME)R guidelines for Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- Guidance notes for dental practitioners on the safe use of x-ray equipment (published by the NRPB and DH)
- Guidelines for the use of radiographs in clinical orthodontics (published by the Orthodontic Society)
- Selection Criteria for Dental Radiography (published by the FGDP (UK))
- Safe use of dental Cone Beam CT equipment
- Cone Beam CT for dental and maxillofacial Radiology – evidence-based guidelines were the resulting from a collaborative project (SEDENTEXCT)