Are Dental X-rays Really Necessary?

Are dental X-rays really necessary? You wouldn’t believe how often I hear this, but let me tell you, in so many cases, they are imperative for proper diagnosis.  

Nobody wants to have a plate or a camera in their mouth taking these pictures, but I’m telling you that it’s totally worth it. What we’re trying to do here is catch things when they’re small and in between the teeth especially. 

It’s very hard for us to see. X-rays or radiographs, as we call them, are very important diagnostic tool to make sure that we can catch everything. We don’t want to miss anything for you. So, it’s very important that, in a reasonable frequency, you have your dental x-rays. That being said, if you’ve never had a cavity in your entire life, it’s very likely that you could go without a dental x-ray and a visit. 

And maybe the frequency should be decreased. But with any change in your life, with any change in your health status, with any change in your diet, or if you’ve become pregnant, the way that your body changes could influence your cavity or caries risk. Additionally, we use these dental x-rays to determine whether or not you have any periodontal disease. 

Some of this isn’t able to be seen in a normal visual examination of the mouth. Even with probing and other techniques, we still need these x-rays to make sure these teeth are healthy. We also use dental x-rays to ensure that there’s no pathology in the mouth.  

So, these are strange occurrences. When we take a big x-ray of your whole mouth, we get to look at things like your jaw joints. We get to look like in areas where we don’t normally see the mouth. So, it’s very important that we have regular dental x-rays for normal stuff, and really to keep you healthy and protect you.