Dental X-Rays
X-rays are useful for:
- Discovering cavities between teeth and underneath old fillings and crowns
- Evaluating bone support around teeth and gum disease
- Discovering abscesses and root infections
- Discovering cysts and tumors
This simple and useful diagnostic procedure is commonly misunderstood. Patients are often concerned about radiation exposure, but as you can see in this chart, dental x-rays are incredibly safe.
The following exposures of bone marrow to radiation during typical x-ray examinations are listed below in millirems, a measurement of radiation. The maximum on the job yearly exposure for Canadian and U.S. radiation workers has been set at 5,000 millirems. Low doses spread out over a period of time are not as harmful as larger doses at once, because the body has time to recover.
| Barium enema (lower GI series) | 875 millirems |
| Mammography (breast examination) | 1000 millirems |
| Gallbladder x-ray | 168 millirems |
| Ribs x-ray | 143 millirems |
| Dental (panorex) | 1 millirems |
| Dental bitewing x-ray | 0.5 millirems |
As you can see, you would have to take 1,750 dental x-rays to equal the radiation in a lower GI series exam. One dental x-ray is 1/10,000th of the yearly maximum recommended dose.
To put things in perspective, each time you fly from coast to coast you receive four millirems of background radiation — or the equivalent of four panoramic x-rays. There is background radiation from concrete buildings, roads, and even the sun. Just standing around, you receive more than three bitewing x-rays' worth of radiation every single day.