Why are Dental X-rays important?

When you are at the dental office, whether that be for Dental Hygiene, Gum Disease Treatment, or another service, you may hear the hygienist or Dentist bring up X-rays.

You may wonder, why do we take X-rays? Why do we recommend X-rays?

One big reason is that, as the Dentist, I can look into your mouth and see about 30%- 40% of it. When we use X-rays, it gives me the ability to see the remaining 60%- 70%. It allows me to see your bone, what’s between your teeth as far as cavities, and anything else that may be hiding from the naked eye.

Let me show you an example that I share in my office regarding why we take X-rays.

This is an X-ray that a patient had in my office. If you look at this x-ray and see where the circle is, you can see that big black area. That area is called a cavity and that cavity will destroy this tooth over time.

The longer this cavity remains untreated, it has more time to destroy the tooth. This leads to treatment options going from a simple Filling, to more complex procedures such as a Root Canal or Dental Implant.

This patient had no pain whatsoever and did not know about this cavity until this X-ray was taken.

Why do I know that so well? This is me! Even the dentist gets cavities and I had to have this treated. So far, I have the tooth, but without this X-ray, I would have lost this tooth!

If you want more information, please contact us or go to our website. Have a great day!

‍

This blog post was derived from this video from Dr. Weber. Click below or here to watch!

https://youtu.be/zyWIbNRsHaw?si=3UgVPyUDABJtwwKh