Survey of radiographic requirements and techniques in United States dental assisting programs, 1982.

A survey of dental assisting programs revealed little standardization of student requirements for dental radiography in the United States. Areas for concern were (1) the high proportion of programs in which classmates exposed one another to ionizing radiation for training purposes and (2) the continued use of closed cones in some cases. Preclinical laboratories in radiography were, on average, of considerably longer duration than those previously reported for dental students. Conversely, clinical requirements in intraoral techniques were less for dental assisting students than is the case for dental students. Available methods of reducing patient exposure to ionizing radiation are not being fully implemented.