Dental enamel as an in vivo radiation dosimeter

Abstract

The determination of the radiation exposure history of the population has become increasingly important in the study of the effects of low-level radiation. An in vivo dosimeter that could give an indication of radiation exposure was investigated. Dental enamel is the only living tissue which retains indefinitely its radiation history and ESR measurement showed that the radiation signal can be resolved down to .apprx. 10 cGy. Measurements on samples from the general population give radiation exposure estimates that are reasonable and 1 measurement on a patient who had radiotherapy to the mouth area showed a good correlation with tumor dose. This is an important new indicator of radiation dose and taken together with exposure histories should provide important data for epidemiological studies as well as accidental exposures.