Why Dental X-rays?

A dental x-ray is a fantastic diagnostic tool that dentists use to assist in the diagnosis of dental problems. Let’s face it, our family dentists at Gold Coast are good…. in fact they are really good…. but they don’t have x-ray vision.

During a routine dental examination your dentist will thoroughly check all your teeth, your gums & the soft tissues inside of your mouth & tongue. However, they cannot see what is happening on the inside of your teeth, between your teeth or in the supporting bone. This is where an x-ray is invaluable! Dental problems picked up on x-rays include decay, abscesses, gum disease, fractures, impacted teeth and pathology such as cysts.

We generally recommend taking x-rays approximately every 2 years at one of your regular examination & cleaning appointments. X-rays can pick up very early signs of decay that the eye cannot see yet. The x-ray also shows us how far the decay or other problem has progressed so that we can then do the appropriate treatment.

To put it simply: regular x-rays = early diagnosis = less dental treatment required!

Now, for some interesting examples:

• See the x-ray below. This patient came in for their general examination; they had no pain or broken teeth. Routine x-rays were taken & detected two large areas of decay that were not visible in the mouth. It is good to remember that in the early stages of tooth decay you may feel no pain or discomfort; some people feel none even at an advanced stage, another reason why dental x-rays are invaluable.

  (You can see the very dark area between the last two teeth on the right that is decay!)

• A patient may come in with dental pain; they can’t exactly locate which tooth it is but it has been tender, sensitive to hot & sore to bite on. In the mouth there are quite a few large fillings but there is no evidence to differentiate which tooth is causing the symptoms. This is where an x-ray is imperative to find out the cause of pain.

• The example below shows the tooth & its roots. This patient has a dental abscess & the x-ray confirmed it. You can see the dark area around the bottom of the tooth roots, this is infection. This tooth now needs a Root Canal or an extraction. Both could have been prevented with regular dental examinations & x-rays.

Many patients are concerned about having x-rays due to the fact that they emit radiation. This is one of the reasons we only take them every 2 years(unless you have dental pain) rather than at each 6 monthly exam.However, we should point out that dental x-rays emit an extremely minimal amount of radiation & the new digital x-rays which we use at Oracle Dental emit even less. To put it into perspective, the radiation dose of two routine dental x-rays is less than one day of natural background radiation or about the equivalent of a flight from Brisbane to Sydney.

So next time you are due for your examination & x-rays are recommended, you now know how important they are for keeping your teeth and gums in tip-top shape!

Cheers

Oracle Dental

Related Tags: Gold Coast Dentist | Teeth Whitening Gold Coast