Diagnosis

Dental X-rays

Most of a tooth is out of sight — the roots, the bone around them, and the decay that starts between teeth where no mirror reaches. Imaging is how a plan gets made about the part nobody can see.

Single image: Seconds
Full scan: 10–20 seconds
Digital: No film, less dose
Results: On screen, at once

What it is

A dental X-ray is a shadow picture. Radiation passes through the head and is stopped to different degrees by enamel, dentine, bone and air; a digital sensor records what arrives and the difference draws the picture. Dense tissue shows pale, spaces show dark, and decay — which is softer than the enamel around it — shows as a shadow inside a tooth that otherwise looks intact.

Digital sensors replaced film some years ago, and the practical differences are three: the image appears on the screen immediately, the dose needed to make it is markedly lower, and there is nothing to develop or lose. It is also why the dentist can show you the problem rather than describe it.

A treatment plan made without imaging is a guess about the half of the tooth nobody can see.
Dr. Kaan

Which one you need

Periapical
A small sensor beside the tooth, showing it from crown to root tip and the bone immediately around it. This is the image a root canal is planned and checked on.
One tooth, root and all
Bitewing
You bite on a tab and the image catches the upper and lower back teeth together. It is the standard check-up view because it finds decay in the contact points, where it starts and where nothing can see it.
Decay between the teeth
Panoramic (OPG)
The machine travels around your head and returns both jaws, all the teeth, the sinuses and the jaw joints on a single image. It is the overview: wisdom teeth, cysts, bone levels.
The whole mouth in one pass
CBCT
A three-dimensional scan. It gives the bone height and width in millimetres and shows where the nerve canal and the sinus floor actually run — which is why no implant is planned here without one.
Implants, and difficult roots
Cephalometric
A side view of the skull used to measure the relationship between the jaws, so a plan to move teeth is made against the face that holds them.
Orthodontics

What happens to you

Two visits, and a wait at home in between

Before
What to say
Tell us if you are or might be pregnant. It rarely changes whether an image is taken, but it changes how and when — and it is the one thing you should say before, not after.
The image
A few seconds
You stand or sit still and the exposure lasts a fraction of a second. Nothing is felt. A small sensor inside the mouth is briefly uncomfortable at the back; a panoramic or CBCT touches nothing.
Immediately
On the screen
The image is up before you have stood down, and you should be shown it. A plan you can see is one you can ask questions about.
Bring yours
Imaging from home
If your own dentist took X-rays recently, bring or send them. They may save an image and they will always add to the picture — an old film showing the same tooth two years ago is genuinely useful.

Before
What to say
Tell us if you are or might be pregnant. It rarely changes whether an image is taken, but it changes how and when — and it is the one thing you should say before, not after.
The image
A few seconds
You stand or sit still and the exposure lasts a fraction of a second. Nothing is felt. A small sensor inside the mouth is briefly uncomfortable at the back; a panoramic or CBCT touches nothing.
Immediately
On the screen
The image is up before you have stood down, and you should be shown it. A plan you can see is one you can ask questions about.
Bring yours
Imaging from home
If your own dentist took X-rays recently, bring or send them. They may save an image and they will always add to the picture — an old film showing the same tooth two years ago is genuinely useful.

Before
What to say
Tell us if you are or might be pregnant. It rarely changes whether an image is taken, but it changes how and when — and it is the one thing you should say before, not after.
The image
A few seconds
You stand or sit still and the exposure lasts a fraction of a second. Nothing is felt. A small sensor inside the mouth is briefly uncomfortable at the back; a panoramic or CBCT touches nothing.
Immediately
On the screen
The image is up before you have stood down, and you should be shown it. A plan you can see is one you can ask questions about.
Bring yours
Imaging from home
If your own dentist took X-rays recently, bring or send them. They may save an image and they will always add to the picture — an old film showing the same tooth two years ago is genuinely useful.

Before
What to say
Tell us if you are or might be pregnant. It rarely changes whether an image is taken, but it changes how and when — and it is the one thing you should say before, not after.
The image
A few seconds
You stand or sit still and the exposure lasts a fraction of a second. Nothing is felt. A small sensor inside the mouth is briefly uncomfortable at the back; a panoramic or CBCT touches nothing.
Immediately
On the screen
The image is up before you have stood down, and you should be shown it. A plan you can see is one you can ask questions about.
Bring yours
Imaging from home
If your own dentist took X-rays recently, bring or send them. They may save an image and they will always add to the picture — an old film showing the same tooth two years ago is genuinely useful.

Questions

Is a dental X-ray dangerous?

The dose from a digital dental X-ray is very small — a single image is broadly comparable to a day or so of the natural background radiation everybody receives anyway, and far below a chest X-ray. The reason it is still kept to what is needed is that the sensible approach to any dose is to have only the ones that change a decision.

How often should they be taken?

When there is a question they answer: symptoms, a new patient with no records, planning surgery, or a routine interval your dentist judges from your own risk of decay. Not on a fixed calendar for everyone.

Can I have one while pregnant?

Tell us first. Routine imaging is usually deferred; an image needed to deal with pain or infection can be taken with shielding, because an untreated infection is the larger risk to a pregnancy.

Why do I need a CBCT for an implant?

Because a flat X-ray cannot show width, and it cannot show exactly where the nerve canal or the sinus floor runs. Those are the two measurements that decide whether an implant is safe in that spot, and both need three dimensions.

Do children need them?

Sometimes — to find decay between baby teeth, or to see whether adult teeth are developing and coming in straight. The same principle applies: only where the picture would change what is done.

Patients

The people who already came

Six of our patients, filmed at the clinic and talking about their own treatment. They are the clinic’s patients rather than any one procedure’s — what each of them had is in the film.