Now a days we wear a ring on finger that records the cumulative dose that hand has received, and another on the chest. Then send those in to a lab on a regular schedule. Also use hand held devices to check for leaks on the machine. At my work at least
Exposures were made with the tube over his forehead, in front of his open mouth and behind his right ear. Levy sat through the exposures from 8 o'clock in the morning until 10 o'clock at night. Within 24 h his entire head was blistered, within a few days his head was an angry sore and his lips were badly swollen, cracked and bleeding. His right ear had doubled in size and the hair on his right side had entirely fallen out.
[A x-ray operator] In his autobiography he maintained “my courage is my work. I treat patients who suffer more or are encumbered more than me, and so I go on. By helping others I help myself”. He went on to predict “I will die from the effects of early uncontrolled exposures to X-rays. And like many of the early pioneers, I too, will die a victim of natural science, a martyr to the X-rays.”
Also Roentgen (who discovered x-rays) refused to patent in order to expedite the benefit to humanity.