Posted: June 23, 2017
Are you concerned about Dental x-rays?
The thought of taking an x-ray can sometimes be quite intimidating. In today’s world where dental professionals are constantly implementing the most advanced technology in our dental offices, the risk of exposure to radiation, as a patient, from dental x-rays is very minimal. Dental X-rays are very safe and expose you or your child to a minimal amount of radiation. When all standard safety precautions are taken, today's X-ray equipment is able to eliminate unnecessary radiation and allows the dentist to focus the X-ray beam on a specific part of the mouth to avoid any unnecessary radiation.
At Museum Smiles Dentistry, we use digital x-rays; the use of digital X-rays provides significantly less radiation to the dental patient and is convenient and time saving for our dental office. The use of x-rays during your dental appointment is a very important and is a useful tool to the dentist; it aids the dentist in being able to not only diagnose any treatment needed, but to also prevent and treat any dental issues from becoming a major problem. X-rays allow the dentist to find cavities, see the tooth roots, examine the health of your bones surrounding your tooth, determine if you have periodontal disease, check the status of your child’s developing teeth and determine eruption times, and overall monitor your oral health by prevention. X-rays can even help the dentist uncover conditions in the early stages before a patient experiences any signs or symptoms that something is not right. Dental x-rays can reveal areas of decay in teeth under old fillings, diseases of the bone, abscesses or cysts, developmental abnormalities, various tumors, trauma, and systemic diseases.
Depending on what type of care you need as a patient, the dentist can ask for different types of x-rays. The most common types of x-rays performed in a dental practice include: Periapical x-rays which aid the dentist in seeing the whole tooth, from the crown of the tooth to the roots. A Bitewing is another type of x-ray, which provides an image of the upper and lower posterior teeth to show the dentist in how the teeth touch one another and help to discover if there are any interproximal cavities, which are cavities in between the teeth, Panoramic x-rays are x-rays taken to show not only the teeth, but the jaw, nasal cavity, sinuses and joints of the jaw.
Overall, when dental x-rays are used with all safety precautions and taken by well-trained dental staff, the risk of radiation is very minimal. Dental X-rays are very important tools to aid the dentist in preventing dental disease and monitoring good oral health. If you have any questions regarding dental x-rays, or the type of dental x-rays we use at Museum Smiles Dentistry, we’d love for you to stop by our office to go over any concerns you have! You can schedule an appointment today by calling us at 817-870-5099.
