You’ll meet first with a hygienist, who will give you a thorough teeth cleaning and measure your gum pockets, meanwhile looking out for issues with your teeth and gums. Once a year (on average), we’ll also take digital x-rays to provide us with a full picture of your oral health.
Next, the doctor will visit with you and discuss any findings and guidance. We’ll take your full health history into account when both diagnosing potential issues and educating you on an optimal at-home care routine.
X-rays are a necessary part of quality patient care. When we look in your mouth, we only can see one third of your tooth and none of your bone. X-rays provide critical diagnostic information that we cannot visualize otherwise, and alert us to issues that might even be asymptomatic:
— Help us to uncover decay
— Help us to diagnose periodontal disease
— Enable us to evaluate root structure and bone health
We do require periodic x-rays from all patients. We’re committed to providing the best possible care. In order to do this, we need to understand the full picture of your oral health, beyond what’s visible to the eye.
In short, yes.
Dental issues often do not have symptoms in their early stages. Even if you aren’t experiencing pain, swelling, or discomfort, it’s possible that there’s an underlying issue in an early stage.
It’s easiest — and least painful and costly for you — to treat dental issues in an early stage, before symptoms develop. Waiting until symptoms develop can result in preventable pain and discomfort, as well as costly restorative treatment. We want to help you avoid this!
Your oral health status is not static — it can change over time. The present doesn’t always mirror the past, so a prior issue-free x-ray does not guarantee current health. Issues can develop quickly, over months to a year.
Dental x-ray frequency is no longer a one-size-fits-all approach. The frequency we recommend for you considers several factors, e.g.:
— General health history, including presence of systemic disease that’s known to affect teeth and/or gums (e.g., cancer, diabetes)
— Risk of cavities and periodontal disease, considering present status and past history
— Medications known to affect mouth, teeth, and/or gums (e.g., chemotherapy, radiation)
— History of tobacco use
Simply put, the health risk associated with avoiding periodic x-rays greatly exceeds the health risk of taking those x-rays.
Risk from periodic dental x-rays is extremely small. Radiation exposure is measured in a unit called the “millisievert” (mSv), which represents the amount of radiation energy absorbed by the body. According to the Mayo Clinic, there is no convincing epidemiological evidence of increased cancer incidence or mortality at low doses (<100 mSv) — long-term effects are either too small to be observed or are non-existent.
Every year in the U.S., we’re exposed to 3 mSv of natural background radiation that occurs in the environment. Digital dental x-rays expose us to approximately 0.005 mSv, which is equivalent to approximately half a day’s worth of natural background radiation.
Risk from avoiding periodic x-rays is much larger. Undetected cavities can lead to potential tooth loss, root canals, and crowns; gum disease can progress and lead to potential loss of teeth.
We will only recommend x-rays that we deem to be clinically necessary, and will follow protocols to minimize exposure.