The need for developing guidelines for radiation protection in dental institutions

So Ra Hwang

doi:10.11149/jkaoh.2019.43.2.92

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Hwang: The need for developing guidelines for radiation protection in dental institutions

Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Oral Health 2019; 43(2): 92-99.

Published online: 28 June 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.11149/jkaoh.2019.43.2.92

The need for developing guidelines for radiation protection in dental institutions

So Ra Hwang

Department of Dental Science, The Graduate School, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea.

Corresponding Author: so ra Hwang. Department of Dental Science, The Graduate School, Chonnam National University, 33 Yongbong-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 61186, Korea. Tel: +82-62-263-2275, Fax: +82-62-251-7528, sora4840@hanmail.net

Received 7 November 2018 Revised 2 March 2019 Accepted 2 March 2019

Journal of Korean Academy of Oral Health

(open-access):

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Objectives

The objectives of this study were to determine the radiation safety status of dental care institutions and to contribute to the development of guidelines for radiation protection in dental clinics in order to improve the work environment and reduce the radiation hazard for practitioners.

Methods

The subjects were selected using a convenience sampling. A total of 300 subjects participated in this study, including 150 dental hygienists from dental clinics in Gwangju Metropolitan City with radiation-related work experience and 150 dental hygienists who had participated in a seminar hosted by the Korean Dental Insurance Manager Association held on January 17, 2016. For the survey, self-entry questionnaires were used, and the collected data were analyzed by performing a frequency analysis using cross tabulation (χ²-test) and t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and multiple regression analysis.

Results

The awareness on radiation protection among dental hygienists showed 4.4 out of 5 points, which was high, but the practice of radiation protection was overall poor. For the necessity of developing radiation protection guidelines, 91.9% answered “Yes, it is necessary.”.

Conclusions

The level of radiation protection practiced at dental healthcare centers was much lower than the awareness of it and showed that the requirement of guidelines for radiation protection was high. Therefore, institutional devices require the development and utilization of various types of radiation protection guidelines in order to mitigate radiation risks and improve the work environment.

Keywords: Radiation practitioners, Radiation protection, Radiation protection guidelines

Figures and Tables

Table 1

General characteristics and working environment of study subjects

Table 2

Radiation-related work environment

Table 3

Current status of education related to radiation safety management

Table 4

Radiation safety management awareness and practice

Table 5

Necessity and recognition of development of radiation safety management guideilnes

^*Obtained from multiple response results.

Table 6

Necessity of developing guidelines for radiation safety control according to general characteristics and work environment N (%)

^*P-values determined by Chi-squared test.

Table 7

Factors affecting the need for development of radiation safety management guidelines

Do not display variables that are not statistically significant (P>0.05).

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ORCID iDs: So Ra Hwang
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0274-1737
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