SKIN RADIATION IN PANORAMIC

Dental panoramic radiograph in Indonesia has been widely used. Modern diagnostic imaging equipment with minimum radiation is still very limited. One of the conditions in nuclear safety law, UU 10/1997, is an optimization of all radiation sources with DRL through skin dose measurements. In Indonesia, the national DRL has not been established yet, and there were no reports on the study of panoramic skin dose in Indonesia. The aim of this preliminary study was to obtain a panoramic skin dose radiation as reference to establish DRL in Indonesia. Panoramic radiographs of sixteen female and fifteen male patients, aged 4 – 48 years, were taken using the standard conventional method, with TLD chips attached in location groups. The chips were then read with the detector and integrator of BATAN, in high and low temperature condition at the same time. It was revealed that behind the right and left ear were the regions with the highest radiation dose received, followed by the back of the neck, left jaw, right jaw, and chin. The result of this study has shown the importance of DRL in Indonesia since the use of modern diagnostic imaging equipement that limits radiation dose to the minimum level is still very limited.