Berry and Berry Dental X-Ray Protocol
At Berry and Berry Dental, we strive to provide the highest quality patient care at every visit. This includes our protocols for diagnostic tools such as x-rays. We follow standards set forth by the American Dental Association as well as the FDA to ensure you have the highest quality imaging, at the appropriate frequencies during your lifetime at our practice. We wanted to share the protocols with you and provide some educational information on why these types of x-rays are important and the frequency of each.
Panoramic X-rays: A panoramic x-ray allows us to view your head, neck, and jaw, and how they work together as a whole, which means we can more easily identify cysts, tumors, growths, jaw abnormalities, and cancer. They can also help identify the severity of bone loss caused by periodontal disease, help with implant treatments, and show wisdom teeth position.
Panoramic images are taken for children ages 6 and over. For adults over the age of 18, we take these images at your New Patient appointment and then once every 3 years.
Bitewing X-rays: Bitewing x-rays are taken at a specific angle to show us cavities that are forming in between the teeth. A bitewing shows great detail of the crown but does not show us the roots.
Bitewings are taken in children over the age of 6 and at every adult New Patient exam. For subsequent appointments, we typically take 4 bitewings of the back teeth once per year. We may take additional bitewings if we see evidence of a new cavity or if you let us know at an exam about unexpected tooth pain.
Periapical X-rays or PA’s: Periapical x-rays or PA’s show the entire tooth and root of the tooth and the surrounding bone. There are many dental problems that we can ONLY see when we take a PA.
You can expect a single PA x-ray to be taken if we are monitoring something specific like the health of a dental implant, infection, root canal, or other problem area.
If you still have questions about dental x-rays, please reach out to us at 817-326-4098.
What About Radiation?
We are exposed to radiation through a variety of sources that we come into contact with every day such as sunlight, the earths soil, and certain foods. Even air travel is a source of radiation. While exposure to radiation isn’t desirable, THE SMALL AMOUNTS THAT YOU ARE EXPOSED TO IN DIGITAL DENTAL X-RAYS ARE NOT CAUSE FOR CONCERN.
Compared to traditional x-rays, digital x-rays emit 85% less radiation.
A digital dental x-ray exposes a patient to 4 micro sieverts (a standard of measurement used to measure radiation). In contrast, your normal everyday environmental exposure is 10 micro sieverts and an airplane flight could provide exposure levels of 40 micro sieverts. Also please note that, at Berry and Berry Dental, our digital x-ray machines are regularly inspected and certified to ensure that they emit only the absolute lowest dosage. See the chart for additional exposures.