Sir, CBCT scans are increasing in prevalence and there has been a longstanding request from practitioners as to the provision of specialist radiology reports.

As readers will be aware, all radiographic images are required by law to be evaluated (reported) according to IRMER. Non-specialist radiologists may report scans themselves, many having attended a CBCT reporting course; however, practitioners may also wish to have scans reported (or give a second opinion) by a specialist.

GDC registered specialists/consultants in dental radiology are mainly limited to larger dental hospitals so it is likely they will be in a different physical location. This practice is called teleradiology and has been present in medical radiology for several years already.

In a Royal College of Radiology (RCR) census from 2009, teleradiology was present in nearly 40% of hospitals.1

The RCR have written guidelines2 on the provision of teleradiology for medicine and in the absence of dental specific guidance, these guidelines can be extrapolated to dentistry.

The RCR has produced standards for teleradiology but there are two particular standards which dental practitioners should be aware of.

One strand says: 'There should be clear and transparent systems in place for rapid, secure transfer and review of images and, where necessary, storage of patient data.'

A secure data transfer service should be used, such as 256-bit encryption. Non encrypted images on CDs/USB keys sent in the post are unlikely to satisfy this requirement.

The other strand says: 'Teleradiologists reporting imaging of British patients should be registered on the General Medical Council (GMC) Clinical Radiology Specialist Register and indemnified to the same standards as those of the base healthcare organisation.'

This can be extrapolated into dentistry that teleradiology services for CBCT reporting should only be prepared by GDC registered specialists in dental and maxillofacial radiology or GMC registered specialist (head and neck) radiologists.

Reports prepared by practitioners outside the UK who are not registered with the GDC (even if they are registered with their own national body) are unlikely to satisfy this criteria and potentially leave the patient and clinician vulnerable.