Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Radiation dose levels for tooth enamel from external photon exposure
By Shin B et al.·2026·J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, United States·View original on Europe PMC →
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Original publication title: Dose Coefficients for Irradiation of Tooth Enamel within ICRP Adult Mesh-type Reference Computational Phantoms for Idealized External Photon Exposures.
Plain-English summary
This study looked at how much radiation tooth enamel can absorb when exposed to different types of external radiation. Researchers calculated the dose for various parts of the tooth enamel in adults using advanced computer models. They found that the amount of radiation absorbed can vary greatly depending on the specific area of the tooth and the energy level of the radiation, with some areas absorbing up to 2,251 times more radiation than others at low energy levels. The findings suggest that these measurements can help estimate how much radiation people have been exposed to based on signals from their teeth. Overall, the study provides valuable information for understanding radiation doses in adults.
Abstract
In the present study, the tooth enamel dose coefficients (DCs) were established for idealized external photon exposures using the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) adult mesh-type reference computational phantoms (MRCPs), coupled with Geant4 Monte Carlo radiation transport code, for use in electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) dosimetry. The DCs were calculated for 10 distinct tooth enamel regions (buccal and lingual enamel regions for front, front-left, front-right, left, and right teeth sites) for six irradiation geometries of uniform external photon fields (AP, PA, LLAT, RLAT, ROT, and ISO) across the energy range of 10 keV to 10 GeV. The results revealed substantial variations among different enamel regions, particularly for photon energies below 0.1 MeV, with differences in DC magnitude of up to 2,251-fold between the front buccal and left lingual enamels at 0.015 MeV in the adult male MRCP. Furthermore, compared to DCs derived from the Golem voxel phantom, the MRCP-based DCs exhibited differences of up to several orders of magnitude at low energies, primarily due to the more detailed anatomical representation of enamel structures within the adult MRCPs. The enamel DCs are expected to be used beneficially to estimate individual radiation doses for exposed adult populations through the conversion of the measured EPR signals in extracted teeth, to include both individual organ doses as well as the whole-body effective dose.
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Search related cases →Original publication on Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/41770105