We're not made for radiation, plain and simple. I always find it disturbing that doctors or, these days, FAA representatives, say "but it's just a little radiation!" Well, okay, but we experience just a little radiation a lot of the time (air travel, mammograms, cigarettes, cell phones...), and children are particularly at risk. Radiation Worries for Children in Dentists' Chairs, NYTimes, 11.22.2010
Because children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to radiation, doctors three years ago mounted a national campaign to protect them by reducing diagnostic radiation to only those levels seen as absolutely necessary.
It is a message that has resonated in many clinics and hospitals. Yet there is one busy place where it has not: the dental office.
Not only do most dentists continue to use outmoded X-ray film requiring higher amounts of radiation, but orthodontists and other specialists are embracing a new scanning device that emits significantly more radiation than conventional methods, an examination by The New York Times has found.
Read the article here...
