What’s the Deal with X-Rays? - Dr. Zachary Meiners, DDS's MySpace Blog | The Lighter Side of Dentistry in Independence, MO

The Lighter Side of Dentistry in Independence, MO

Dr. Zachary Meiners, Independence Dentist

X-Rays allow us to do a thorough job checking your teeth. Without them we can only see the tooth surfaces that are visible. Many problems with the teeth originate in areas that we cannot see.

The 1 area for cavities on back teeth is on the biting surfaces of the teeth, which we can see visually. But the 2 area for cavities is in between the teeth. Those only become visible when the decay inside the tooth is large and has eaten away a big portion of the tooth.

On front teeth the 1 area for tooth decay is in between the teeth.

Meiners Dentistry has gone all digital on all types of x-rays now.

The benefits of that are:
1) Low Radiation needed to capture the same quality of image that we used to get with film.
2) Fast results. It doesn't take 5-7 minutes to process the x-rays anymore.
3) It means we've gone "green" - no more chemicals used to process the x-rays, and less waste.

If you'd like to read more about our digital panoramic x-ray unit, I wrote a blog entry about it HERE.