Answer to Question #4885 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Your concern about your radiation exposure during pregnancy is appropriate and appreciated. However, there is little cause for worry. Dental workers are very unlikely to receive much of a measurable occupational dose. There is an occupational dose limit (50 mSv per year—mSv is millisievert and is a unit of radiation dose) but I can share that at my organization, we have not had a dental assistant receive even 1/100^th of that (0.5 mSv) and we do many hundreds of dental x rays each year. Most of our dental workers, in fact, receive no measurable radiation exposure on the job.

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, the beam of radiation is coned to the exact spot that needs to be x rayed. So the only thing in the primary x-ray beam is the tooth or teeth of interest. Second, the fact that the beam is so coned down results in very little scatter radiation. In fact, because there is so little scatter radiation, the walls in a dental office generally do not need to have lead shielding in them. 

The answer to your question about the 0.3 mm lead-equivalent apron is "yes." This amount of lead will stop 70-75 percent of the x rays in the primary beam and more of the scatter since those x rays have less energy.

Even if you were to be a patient and have some dental x rays done on you, there is no cause for concern for your baby. As well, the radiation exposure you receive in your occupation is too low, if there is any, to cause effects to your baby.

Kelly Classic
Certified Medical Health Physicist