Patient radiation dose in conventional and xerographic cephalography.

A comparison of the radiation doses for xeroradiographic and conventional film screen cephalography was made. Alderson tissue-equivalent phantoms were used for patient stimulation. An optimum technique in terms of patient dose and imaqe quality was established for the xeroradhe data indicated that the dose for the Xerox process ranged from five to eleven times greater than that for the conventional process for entrance and exit exposures, respectively. The most commonly reported dose, the entrance dose, was found to be 206 mrad, which is five Imes that for the conventional cephalogram. This dose, however, falls within an acceptable range for other dental and medical radiation doses. It is recommended that conventional cephalography be used for routine purposes and that xeroradiography be reserved for situations requiring the increased image quality that the process affords.