Question

When we receive an X-ray at the dentist office why do they place a lead apron on our chest? Why is it lead? What type of radiation?

Answer 1

First off, X-Rays are the radiation they don't contain radiation. Second, the lead apron doesn't protect the thyroid unless the apron is around your neck. X-Rays don't "like to hang around in soft tissue" they just pass through and maybe bounce off a few atoms or molecules imparting a minute amount of energy to those atoms and molecules.

Yes the lead apron is to protect the parts of the body that the doctor doesn't need to see from the effects of radiation. I may be remembering incorrectly but I think 1" thick lead plate cuts the amount of X-Rays by 10%. The amount of radiation that you receive from the average X-Ray (the procedure not the radiation) is on the order of 100 milliREM. You're max allowable dose of radiation for any one year is 5 REM.

Although you could have 100,000 chest x-rays before you died why take the radiation from one when you don't need it? I where a lead apron in my field all the time. Not having one isn't going to make me melt away but continuously not wearing it while being exposed to the radiation has the potential to cause many kinds of problems. The first being skin eurythemia (redness/buring of the skin.) The most sensitive areas of your body are the reproductive organs as well as your thyroid. X-ray technologist will put an apron on you if your within a child bearing age so as to avoid legal ramifications. When x-raying the elderly we seldom protect them because of the small amount of radiation used in diagnostic xrays. CT radiation would be far more as it uses a great deal over a long period of time. For example, a chest xray takes about .01 sec of radiation at a pretty small dose. A CT is a great bit longer with much larger dose, 3-10 sec.

In reality if your having an X-ray or your child is, ask to please use an apron if they aren't, but most technologists i've worked with are usually pretty good about doing it and can sometimes be offended when people ask before having the xray done. Its what they've been to school for they do know, the problem is some tech's are just lazy.