What do Kentucky, Delaware, Indiana, Alabama, Minnesota, North Carolina and New Hampshire have in common?
These are the only US States that do not allow the use of the Nomad hand held x-ray device. Actually some do but with such silly restrictions that it becomes unusable. If you live in one of these states and want to right to use this new device you can help by contacting your state dental association or the state regulatory agency and express your wishes. Regulators have been known to drag their feet on new devices if they perceive that there is little public demand for it. So, if you want it you will have to ask.
If you are not familiar with Nomad you can check it out here. If you are building or remodeling an office there is absolutely no excuse not to consider a Nomad. It is portable!!! That means you can use one Nomad in place of three or four wall mounted units. That is of course unless you live in Kentucky, Delaware, Indiana, Alabama, Minnesota, North Carolina or New Hampshire.
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……or if you live in Canada……
True, Nomad is still pending in Canada and dentists asking for it will help the approval process along.
Yes, restrictions on handheld use are presenting a barrier to care. The rules and regulations cited by in regulators are intended to protect the public and ensure operator whole body and extremity dose from leakage and scatter radiation remains within acceptable parameters. These regulations were written to allow for the overwhelming diagnostic benefits of historically dangerous devices, while creating operating rules to protect the operator. Rules define physical separation distances to limit the radiation exposure to the operator as the radiation naturally dissipates and/or require the operator to wear shielded protective clothing.
The external defenses that make a traditional machine safe to operate are incorporated within the NOMAD systems. All of the formal studies relating to operator exposure demonstrate that handheld operation of the NOMAD systems results in an operator dose that is less than the general population dose limit of 1mSv/y; this by definition is safe. These facts make it hard to understand why some states don’t allow handheld use and why some require the operator to wear personal protection clothing.
By way of update on state status, Indiana is actually allowing use via one off exemption requests, while Alabama and Kentucky are both seriously looking at the test data as they actively consider allowing handheld use. North Carolina, Delaware, Minnesota, and New Hampshire remain resistant and really do need a groundswell push from practitioners.
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