A radiation photograph, such as an X-ray picture of a patient's body, is often used to help diagnose a patient's condition without using other, more intrusive methods such as a biopsy. Though radiology has been around for decades now, it's only seen great forward progress in the past few decades as technology made the use of radiation safer, briefer and less likely to cause or aggravate conditions in patients who are already ill.
Radiation can prove a great aid to diagnostic imaging.
Radiation Photos
Taking a radiation photo is a common, medical practice. X-ray photographs are one of the most common types of radiation photographs. During this procedure a film is exposed in the same way that film is exposed in a camera, except instead of light, the film is exposed to radiation that comes through the patient's body and shows the condition of the body from the inside.
Exposure
When a radiation photograph is taken, there is a short burst of radiation that exposes the film. This exposure lasts perhaps half a second, and then once the film is exposed, the radiation is shut off. It's this short time exposure, coupled with the relative safety of modern radiology equipment, that makes radiation photographs much safer procedures than they used to be.
Skin Irritation
One of the effects of radiation exposure is that skin can be damaged. This is commonly referred to as a radiation burn, and it acts much like a sunburn depending on the person's exposure and level of radiation. These burns can damage not only the person's skin, but the radiation can seep deeper and cause permanent damage to other tissues as well as the person's genes.
Genes
It's been shown that exposure to radiation over time can cause damage to a person's genes. Though this damage is longer term, this effect can lead to the development of diseases. The most notable diseases that genetic damage of radiation causes is cancer. In many cases, professionals who were exposed over a long period of time to years and years of radiation photographs developed cancer from the radiation.
Safety
Modern radiology takes steps to be sure that people getting radiation photographs taken of themselves, as well as the professionals taking the photographs, are kept safe from risks. Shields that stop radiation from reaching technologists are common place for instance. The exposure time is short, which minimizes health risks. There have also been technological advances that allow the radiation to be better directed and narrowed so that its effects are enough to get the job done, but not enough to expose anyone to undue amounts of radiation. Ever since these methods have been put in place, side effects of radiology have become minimal, including the development of radiation burns, cancer and even feelings of sickness and nausea that patients may have felt in the past.
Tags: film exposed, radiation photographs, exposed radiation, film exposed radiation, patient body
