By Digital Radiographs, (X-Rays) are a vital and necessary part of your child’s dental diagnostic process. Without them, certain dental conditions can and will be missed.
Children’s Dentist in Carlsbad shares more on X-rays
Take the following image for example. With the naked eye, the tooth looks healthy and intact. However, the x ray paints a very different picture! This tooth may be completely asymptomatic, however if left without treatment will require either a root canal or possibly even an extraction!
Radiographs detect much more than cavities. They assist in evaluating the eruption of teeth, diagnosis of bone diseases, aid in the assessment of an injury, or plan orthodontic treatment. Radiographs allow dentists to diagnose and treat health conditions that cannot be detected during a clinical examination. If dental problems are found and treated early, dental care is more comfortable for your child and more affordable for you.
Another great example can be found below. “Simply looking at this child’s teeth one would see healthy gums, teeth and skeletal development, but would never be able to detect that an extra tooth was growing upside down, potentially blocking the eruption of the permanent teeth stated, Dr. Jenna Khoury, a Pediatric Dentist in Carlsbad.
In order to reference radiation exposure, it is important to define the units at which radiation is measured. A millirem is a unit of absorbed radiation dose.
A person would get this amount of radiation from:
- three days living in Atlanta
- About seven hours in certain areas of Brazil
- If you live at high elevations, like Denver, Colorado, you are naturally exposed to about 50-70 more millirems per year than living in, say, Seattle, Washington (sea level).
- Being next to the Rocky Mountains will net you exposure to about 40 extra millirems per year, due to the uranium in the soil.
- Every U.S. coast to coast round trip flight will expose you to about 10 extra millirems per trip.
- On average, a person living in the United States will naturally be exposed to somewhere around 360 millirems (36,500 bananas) of radiation per year, with the vast majority of that (300 millirems or so) coming from the sun, soil, rocks, and other natural sources.
- If you sat about 1 inch away from your tv-set, you’d receive about .5 millirems per hour.
More about The Brush Stop Pediatric Dentistry
At The Brush Stop Dental, we are particularly careful to minimize the exposure of our patients to radiation, by utilizing the most advanced, digital x-rays units that emit the lowest possible amount of radiation in the industry (less than .05 millirems). With contemporary safeguards, the amount of radiation received in a dental X-ray examination is negligible. Lead body aprons and shields will protect your child. Today’s equipment filters out unnecessary x-rays and restricts the x-ray beam to the area of interest. High-speed film and proper shielding assure that your child receives a minimal amount of radiation exposure. In fact, the dental radiographs represent a far smaller risk than an undetected and untreated dental problem.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding digital radiography and safety precautions, be sure to reach out to your Pediatric dentist in order to assess the right plan for your family. For any additional information, please call to book an appointment at 1-760-635-5995 or visit us at www.thebrushstopdental.com
– Dr. Jenna Khoury, a Board-Certified Pediatric Dentist in Carlsbad, CA.
