It is generally accepted that dentists recording CBVT- particularly large volume CBVT datasets- have responsibility for the interpretation of all data, not just the area of interest. (Dentists who record OPG radiographs must take responsibility for all non-dental diagnosis from such images or alternatively have them assessed on referral by an oral radiologist or medical radiologist and include this cost in their estimate of fees to the patient see Aust Dent J
2012 Mar:57 Suppl 1:9-15. doi: 10.1111j.1834-7819.2011.01653.x.)
Practitioners frequently use a CBVT dataset to ’construct’ an OPG.
If this construction is based on a full volume dataset, it is arguable that there may be pathology not detected by a general dentist who has training for the machine that they use.
In Western Australia, Section 36 of the Radiation Safety Act 1975 provides for the Radiological Council to impose conditions, restrictions or limitations on a licence, exemption, or registration.
In Western Australia, the standard condition of registration for the purpose of Radiology – Dental, requires that: “as soon as practicable, all CBCT images are reported on by an Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency registered medical radiologist or dento-maxillofacial radiologist”.
It is probably therefore prudent, if not a legal requirement, in other states that practitioners recording CBVT data sets give consideration to having all of the datasets reviewed by an appropriate radiologist to reduce a failure to diagnose risk. Such reports would then need to be communicated to the patients as a matter of course.
