The College's ionizing radiation guidelines comply with the Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act authorized by FDA, the Consumer-Patient Radiation Health and Safety Act, the Oklahoma Department of Health Rules and Regulations, the Oklahoma State Dental Practice Act, and the recommendations of the American Dental Association and the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology.
The Division Head of Oral Diagnosis and Radiology shall serve as the College's Radiation Protection Representative (RPR) with advice and input from the Clinic Operations Committee.
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The RPR is responsible for establishing, implementing, and monitoring policies on radiographic practices for all diagnostic radiation sources in the College. They will also work in cooperation with established university radiation standards and radiation protection programs to coordinate, monitor, and control the use of x-ray and other imaging equipment.
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RPR will work in cooperation with the Director of Compliance and the Health and Safety Committee at the College of Dentistry.
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Only faculty, students, and staff certified by training will acquire radiographic images. Students will perform the radiographic procedures under the supervision of dental faculty and trained staff.
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The dental faculty and the student will establish a need for diagnostic radiographic images by tentative diagnoses by evaluation of patient history and clinical examination. Faculty will prescribe the appropriate radiographic procedures in electronic health record system before exposure.
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The RPR will conduct periodic continuing education programs for all staff operating x-ray generating and processing equipment. All such staff must be thoroughly conversant with all materials regarding radiation hazards, safety practices, and state and federal radiation rules and regulations.
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Radiographic images made as part of a diagnostic workup should be confined to the Oral Radiology clinic whenever possible. Reasonable exceptions are radiographic images made as part of treatment in other clinics, off-site training programs, and student externships and unavailability of radiology clinic.
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The RPR is responsible for implementing and monitoring a facility-wide radiographic quality assurance program. The RPR and the Clinic Policies Committee are responsible for controlling the use of ionizing radiation and for ensuring the consistent application of this policy by all clinical departments and programs. Every entity with radiographic capacities is expected to monitor daily compliance with this policy. All actions taken to maintain safety and quality must be documented with quality assurance activities in each department. Applicable portions of this policy must be posted or otherwise available in each satellite area.
