SOME FACTORS AFFECTING THE STANDARDS OF RADIOGRAPHY IN GENERAL DENTALPRACTICE

This study had three aims. The first was to examine the influence of l egislative and educational factors on facilities and equipment in dent al practices, the second to find out if these and practice size affect ed standards and the third to assess the degree to which technique and other faults not connected with processing accounted for inadequate d iagnostic quality in intra-oral radiography. Dentists from 62 practice s returned questionnaires about the sizes of their practices, faciliti es and equipment for radiography and relevant updating, training and e ducation of their staff. The quality of 305 radiographs taken in a sam ple of 11 practices was assessed. Ten examples of good radiographic pr actice were used to evaluate standards in the general practices. The ' good practice score' ranged from 2 (two practices) to 10 (one practice ) with a mean of 6.2. Practices whose principals had engaged in the re commended educational activities scored more highly than those that ha d not (P < 0.05), and the mean scores in practices of two or more dent ists were higher than in single-handed (P < 0.05). Of the 305 radiogra phs, the dentists, without the use of criteria to assess them, rejecte d 13.8%; with criteria they rejected 39.3% (P < 0.05). The researcher rejected 63.9% (P < 0.05). All films were processed under controlled c onditions and it is likely that reject rates would have been higher un der normal processing conditions. It is concluded that the use of crit eria to assess radiographs and acceptance of postgraduate opportunitie s, particularly by singlehanded practitioners, would improve the condu ct of radiography. Further improvements might be gained by orienting u pdating courses and materials towards behavioural change.