Digital Dental Radiology
Thanks to this image we can accurately diagnose damage or pathologies in the teeth and jaw. Radiographs detect fractures, cavities, cysts, impacted teeth, among others.
What is Digital Dental Radiology?
Dental radiographs, better known as x-rays, produce an image of the mouth and depending on the type of shot may include: The mandible, maxilla, all teeth, temporomandibular joints (TMJ), nasal area and sinuses. This helps to diagnose internal pathologies that the patient may present and is not seen with the naked eye or does not feel any pain.
What are the different types of X-rays and what are they used for?
- Periapical: It is an image of a single tooth or maximum two, where problems of a single dental piece can be seen.
- Panoramic: It is an image of the whole mouth and serves to detect problems that are invisible in a conventional visual examination. It provides more information to the dentist to perform a more extensive and complicated treatment.
- Lateral cephalicUsed in orthodontic diagnosis to see the interrelationship between the upper and lower jaw.
- Temporomandibular joints (TMJ): It serves to detect problems of trauma, pain when chewing, noise when chewing and limitation in mouth opening.
Frequently Asked Questions
Taking into account the preparation time and positioning of the patient, the dental X-ray may take 5 to 10 minutes maximum.
Panoramic radiography can identify problems affecting the bones, teeth or gums, depending on their location, extent and shape, and may require other tests such as a 3D tomography, all depending on the pathology and the extent of damage in the mouth.
Because there are different procedures, X-rays emit different amounts of radiation exposure, not so much the number of imaging exams. The lifetime dental diagnostic radiation exposure is 100 mSv, which is equivalent to approximately 10,000 chest X-rays.
