Re: unuseful dental x-ray

["Franz Schoenhofer" <schoenho@via.at>]

Schoenhofer
Habichergasse 31/7
A-1160 Wien
AUSTRIA
Tel./Fax: +43-1-4955308
Mobiltel.: +43-664-3380333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at

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> Von: Richard Wu <rwu@clinserv.com>
> An: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
> Betreff: unuseful dental x-ray 
> Datum: Dienstag, 28. Oktober 1997 20:45
> 
> My dentist took films on my missing teeth which need bridges. He told me
he
> had to send the films to the dental insurance to prove that I did not
have
> teeth on that location. My understanding is that the radiation exposure I
> received from this procedure is only for the insurance documentation
> purpose. There is no other benifit at all. Can some one comment on this.
> Thanks.
> 
> 
> Richard Wu, M.S., DABR, DABSNM
> RSO/Medical Physicist
> United/Unity/Mercy Hospital
> St. Paul, MN
> 
> rwu@clinserv.com
> 612-635-4404
------------------------------------------------

Some time ago I wrote that in my country (Austria) an insurance wanted to
have a proof that work on teeth had been done and requested x-ray
documentation. This was stopped almost immediately. Any (medical) exposure
is prohibited if there is no health benefit. 

As Bob Flood pointed out, it is much easier to verify a missing tooth by a
photograph. Have you thought over, what the dentist earned by taking an
x-ray "photograph" and how much he might have earned by taking a polaroid
photo? Is this an explanation?

Another - non radiation protection related - question is, whether an
insurance has the right to question what a dentist testifies?

Franz