Australasian Dentist Issue 93

CATEGORY AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST 133 S o, you’re opening a dental practice – fantastic. Through your schooling and work experience, you have come to understand the undeniable benefits of dental radiography. You’ve budgeted accordingly and plan on bringing in the very best x-ray technology. But what’s next? What are your legal obligations, for owning and operating x-ray equipment, in NSW? **Please note that these regulations vary from state to state, so if you’re located outside of NSW, check with your local authority. Captain America has a shield and your practice may need one too First, before your equipment is installed, a shielding assessment should be completed to determine if the examination room Gamma Talk by Gamma Tech Radiation Safety 101 – From Acquiring to Retiring By Makenzie Harris & Martina Dietrich qualifies as a low, medium, or high risk premises, in accordancewithEPARadiation Guideline 7. Most dental examination rooms qualify as low-risk, allowing for a self-assessment report to be completed by the owner, with no further shielding required. Details and examples can be found in section 5, of Guideline 7. Industry best practice states that a Shielding Plan should be completed if your room(s) are deemedmediumor high risk. This can be completed with the help of a Consulting Radiation Expert (CRE). Step two, is applying for your Radiation Management License (RML) for the premises, and Radiation User License(s) for the applicable staff and type of x-ray equipment. For instance, every person who operates an OPG or CBCT requires a Radiation User License. However, dentists, oral therapists, and hygienists do not require one for using an intraoral x-ray, whereas a dental assistant does. Further information can be found on the eConnect EPA website, as well as the application and renewal documents, for your licenses. It is your responsibility to ensure that all licenses are valid, for the entirety that your practice owns and operates radiographic equipment. Once the installation is completed, you are required to add the new unit(s) to your RML. The final step is to have a CRE compli- ance test the unit(s). This is to ensure they meet the mandatory safety requirements, under EPA Radiation Standard 6: Part 3 – Dentistry After successful completion, the Layout of a standard dental room showing the minimum distances from the radiation source to walls and other occupied spaces. Source: Radiation Guideline 7: Radiation shielding design assessment and verification requirements CRE issues your compliance certificate and accompanying technical report. You don’t whinge about your pink slips, do you? Imagine your x-ray unit as a new car. Much like you renew your rego every year, you are required to renew your RML. Subsequently, after five years, your car requires a safety inspection. Your mechanic carries out a few standard tests and upon successful completion, deems your car road-safe and issues a pink slip. The same principles apply to your x-ray equipment. In NSW, it’s mandatory to have your radiographic equipment inspected by a CRE, every five years. When your x-ray unit, OPG, or CBCT passes all tests and is deemed safe for use, you will be issued with a new compliance certificate and report. Does your roadmap to retirement cover your radiographic equipment? Retirement is a significant turning point in a person’s life. Ideally, the day you put down your loupes, probe and mirror for the last time, the challenges of selling your practice lay behind you. But before you head to your farewell drinks, did you remember to transfer your radiographic equipment? In NSW, this means logging into the eConnect EPA website one last time and removing all existing x-ray devices in the surgery from your RML. If you have a successor taking over your practice, you must supply them with all relevant information, to add the equipment to their own RML. If you are shutting down completely and disposing of the x-ray equipment then don’t worry. All you are required to do is render the equipment permanently inoperable by cutting the cables to the tubehead, and disposing of it, in accordance with the conditions of your RML. Lastly, you must submit a variation to your RML through the eConnect EPA website stating your units have been decommissioned and disposed. u If you have questions regarding radiation safety, or would like to learn more about your legal obligations, please reach out to our team at Gamma Tech. P: 0437 230 808 E: service@gammatech.com.au W: www.gammatech.com.au RADIATION SAFETY Know your compliance obligations for owning and operating your x-ray equipment safely. Source: Shutterstock