Dental X-ray safe?

xxdeebeexx

Just wondering how safe dental x rays are and if there is any guidelines.
I need some dental work done and have been 'shopping around' for a new NHS dentist.

I went to my usual practice but the dentist has change and I wasn't confident with the new one. I had 1 xray there about 3 weeks ago.

I visited a dentist yesterday and had 3 xrays but was confused as I mistook their description of being a 'family dentist ' as being NHS and they're not.

I'm now looking at a 3rd dentist (definitely NHS this time) but I'm pretty sure that they will want to take their own xrays.

any help would be great.

tia

dx

Toothsmith

When you are in an aeroplane, you're high up in the sky. Because of this, there is less atmosphere to block out the x-rays generated by the sun which we are all exposed to during daylight hours. So every time you fly in an aeroplane, you are exposing your body to a higher dose of x-rays than if you were on the ground.

One dental x-ray is about the equivalent to 4h in an aeroplane, so a pair of x-rays (one either side) is about the same as a trip to the Canaries and back.

Many other things in our lives are sources of x-rays and other electromagnetic radiation. Plug sockets, computers, mobile devices, Brazil nuts, bananas... there is a long list.


On the other side every x-ray you're exposed to has the potential to alter the DNA in a cell. The overwhelming majority of cells that are damaged by electromagnetic radiation are destroyed by the body, and the body is doing this all the time. But, if they miss one - that is how cancers start.

So it's all a probability thing. The more radiation you're exposed to, the more chance there is that one little bit will have an adverse effect. The chances are still vanishingly small, and there is no possible way of knowing if it was that dental x-ray, that banana, or the time you sat in front of your old CRT telly 25 years ago! But - that is why there are guidelines and checks on when medical people should be exposing people to x-rays, and that is why people taking them all day every day stand behind screens when they are taking them!

The bottom line is that although you're entitled to ask for radiographs to be forwarded to new dentists - and in many cases this may be a sensible thing to do - for the sake of a bunch of 5 or 6 dental x-rays - just go and have the check-up and don't worry about it!

xxdeebeexx

Thank you so much Toothsmith. You have explained the risks perfectly.

I will go ahead and have the check up


dx