GDC issues scanner warning to dentists

Posted by Allie Wright

A warning about a type of scanner has been issued to dental industry professionals by the General Dental Council (GDC).

The body has highlighted a warning from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)  about the Tianjie Dental Falcon device.

Tests by the Health Protection Agency have shown that there is a lack of sufficient shielding in the X-ray tube of the scanner, which it was noted may give rise to high patient doses of radiation.

A statement released by the GDC reminded all registrants that the body’s Standards for dental professionals says: “Put patients’ interests first and act to protect them.”

The MHRA – a government agency that is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe – explained in its report how the scanner under typical high radiographic workloads results in operator doses in excess of the Ionising Radiation Regulations 1999 annual dose limits.