You can hear so many negative things about X-rays these days. Between social media posts and well-meaning friends, there’s no shortage of scary stories out there. But you don’t hear as much about the benefits and prevention that dental X-rays provide, or what can happen when you skip them.
The short answer to whether you really need dental x-rays? Yes. And understanding why might actually put your mind at ease. In this guide, we’ll break down what dental X-rays are, what information they give our team about your health, and some of the consequences of not having this valuable part of your dental examination done regularly.
What Exactly Is a Dental X-Ray?
An X-ray is an electromagnetic wave produced by the machine your dental team uses—the one that looks somewhat like a camera. The wave travels through the air and is detected by the small plastic sensor we place in your mouth. In between these two things is the object we’re trying to image.
This object may be a tooth, the jawbone, your airway, or dental work that needs evaluation. As the wave passes through, some waves are blocked while others pass through and are read by the sensor. The computer takes that information and creates a black-and-white picture showing the density of the object.
Here’s how to read what you see:
- White areas show very dense objects like metal, fillings, or tooth structure
- Dark areas show less dense parts like cheeks, gums, and air space
This density map reveals what’s happening beneath the surface—things that are completely invisible to the naked eye.
Types of Dental X-Rays and What Each Reveals
Several types of dental X-rays give your dental team specific information. The condition of restorations or dental work, such as bridges, fillings, or orthodontics, can be evaluated with X-ray images. The presence of decay, fracture, infection, or abscess is often shown on an image.
Bitewing X-Rays
These are familiar to most people. They’re generally a group of 2 or 4 images taken of kids and adults, respectively. Bitewings show the half of the tooth closest to the biting surface, with both upper and lower teeth in the same image.
They detect areas of potential decay, gum disease, infection, or damage to a tooth, restoration, or bone. They’re best taken yearly. Having these images at regular intervals allows us to detect decay early because we can see subtle changes happening over time—hopefully before larger, obvious decay presents itself.
Periapical X-Rays
Also called PAs, these show the whole tooth, including the tips of the roots. We usually take these images regularly to evaluate the upper and lower front teeth for decay or infection. We also use them during emergency exams to examine a tooth that may be causing pain or appears fractured.
Panoramic X-Rays
These show the entire area of the jaws from below the eyes to below the chin, ear to ear. Panoramic images are valuable for evaluating:
- Wisdom teeth
- Impacted teeth
- Jaw infections or fractures
- Potential problems within the bone, such as cysts or tumors
We generally take these images every 3-5 years. In our office, we have a more advanced version called a 3D CBCT scan machine. It performs all the above functions while allowing us to look within the bone in a unique way. By examining a small “slice” of the image, we can avoid overlapping structures that might hide slight changes. This is the image used to diagnose and plan dental implant placement.
Addressing Your Safety Concerns
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Radiation concerns are valid, and we take them seriously. But the reality of modern dental X-rays may surprise you.
According to the USNRC, we receive over 3.11 mSv of radiation annually simply from breathing the air, eating, and living on Earth. In contrast, the radiation exposure from one bitewing x-ray is only 0.005 mSv—and this is half the dose from just a few years ago when we used film instead of digital sensors.
To put this in perspective:
- A cross-country flight exposes you to more radiation than a full set of dental X-rays
- You’d need approximately 620 bitewing X-rays to equal your normal yearly background radiation exposure
- Modern digital technology has dramatically reduced exposure while improving image quality
The newest technology in our office gives you the highest quality and accuracy in diagnosing dental disease while making dentistry as safe as possible for you and your family.
What Happens When You Skip Dental X-Rays
One of the biggest problems with dental disease is that it’s often not painful until it becomes severe. As we all know, it’s nearly impossible to see all areas of your own mouth well. The only way to know you have a healthy mouth is to regularly see a dentist you trust—and that includes X-rays.
Dental cavities and infections can grow unchecked without regular dental examinations. A cavity may not be visible from the top of the tooth to you, and possibly not even to your dentist, without an X-ray. By the time decay becomes visible or painful, it may have progressed to the nerve, requiring much more advanced treatment than if caught early with a simple filling.
Skipping X-rays can lead to:
- Root canals instead of small fillings
- Extractions instead of crowns
- Significantly higher treatment costs
- More time in the dental chair
- Preventable pain and discomfort
- Potential spread of infection to surrounding teeth and bone
Your Preventive Care Partnership
My primary goal as your dentist is to partner with your family to achieve and maintain dental health. It’s a partnership of good home care and habits combined with the highest quality in-office care, experience, and expertise.
We never want to see a patient suffering with pain or having extensive dental work done because decay and infection progressed unchecked. Regular examinations by our dental team, including X-rays, are vital to keeping your mouth healthy and reducing the amount of dental care you’ll need over your lifetime.
The Answer to Your Question
So, do you really need dental X-rays? Yes! X-rays aren’t about finding problems to fix. They’re about catching small issues before they become big ones, saving you time, money, and discomfort in the long run.
Think of dental X-rays as a window into what’s really happening in your mouth. What you can’t see can absolutely hurt you, but it doesn’t have to.