Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Dental X-rays

Dental x-rays have always been an essential tool for dental diagnosis. Without it, small problems (e.g. cavities) turn into big ones, such as, root canals. Now I know that everyone shy’s away from any form of radiation but let me put it into perspective. Dental x-ray technology has come a long way. With the use of digital radiology, exposure has been reduced to under 1.5 microsieverts for a standard bitewing x-ray. Those are the x-rays you get once per year at your routine dental check-up. To compare, an acceptable level of environmental radiation per year is 3500 microsieverts. In addition, dental x-ray techniques of today focus the x-rays on specific sites of the mouth. The extreme rarity of cancerous lesions in those areas is further proof of the safety of dental x-rays. So in a nut shell, the benefits far outweigh any risk

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