Absorbed doses from computed tomography for dental implant surgery: comparison with conventional tomography

Tomography is often needed prior to implant surgery to evaluate jaw bone dimensions. Computed tomography (CT) is advocated as an alternative. The purpose of this study was to measure the absorbed doses to radiosensitive organ in the head and neck region when CT is used. Measurements were made with extruded LiF thermoluminescent dosemeters within and on an anthropomorphic phantom examined with a Philips Tomoscan LX CT scanner. Axial scanning was performed for the maxilla and both frontal, perpendicular to the alveolus, and axial for the mandible. The highest absorbed doses were at the skin surface, 38 mGy with maxillary scans, and from axial and frontal scans of the mandible 35 mGy and 37 Gy, respectively. The parotid dose was 31 mGy from maxillary scans and in the mandible the submandibular gland dose was 27 mGy with axial scanning and 16 mGy with frontal. The eye lens received its highest dose (5.5 mGy) from frontal scans of the mandible. Although outside the scanning plane the pituitary and the thyroid glands received comparatively high absorbed doses of 0.6-4.0 mGy. All organ doses measured were considerably higher than those reported for conventional tomography.