When I visit the dentist, they typically use the type of x-rays where you clench your teeth on a piece of plastic holding a postage-stamp-sized piece of x-ray film in your mouth, and then repeat that so a series of x-rays is taken of all the teeth (seventeen times during my most recent dental exam). I visited an oral surgeon yesterday to discuss the extraction of my wisdom teeth and instead I received an exterior x-ray where I held my head in a frame and a device swung around my head, resulting in a single panoramic x-ray image of my entire mouth. It seems more comfortable than trying not to choke on those small pieces of x-ray film and the single image made it much easier to see everything. First of all, what are these two types of x-rays called, and why don’t more dentists use the external type?
IANADentist, but I do know something about this, largely because I’ve asked my own dentist.
A Panorex x-ray (the external kind) is good for showing relationships between the teeth, the gums and the jaw. (See url=“http://www.dentalgentlecare.com/panorex.htm”]here.) Unless you’ve got such painful TMJ that you can’t open your mouth, this doesn’t give dentists the detail they need to work on an individual tooth. However, if you’ve got mouth or jaw problems, this’ll tell the dentist what he needs to know.
Regular x-rays, OTOH, do give dentists enough detail to work on individual teeth. They also give a more accurate picture of any previous work, which is what makes them useful for forensic identification.
Think of it as a city-level map versus a street-level map. One is useful for the big picture, the other gives you the details.
Robin
Thanks, Mr. Blue Sky.
Robin
The only time I ever had the panoramic X-ray was before the extraction of my wisdom teeth. Sounds like the surgeons are the only people who really need them.
[QUOTE=Dewey Finn]
(seventeen times during my most recent dental exam)[\QUOTE]
You got seventeen x-rays in one visit! :eek: Yeesh, the most I have ever had was four. Two for each side, top and bottom.
My dentist wants one every year or so. I’ve got TMJ, and the Panorex gives some indication of how/if it’s deteriorating.
Robin
Well, it had been a while since I last saw any dentist so I guess he needed a complete set.
Orthodontist as well… not surgery per-se, but it does fit into the overall picture aspect that the panorax is so good at. That’s the only time I’ve ever had one, though it did end up requiring some surgery to move a tooth from the roof of my mouth down into place inline with the rest of my teeth. (Upper left canine, they opened a hole in my palate, attached a bracket, and dragged it down over time.)
-Butler
The individual films that you hold between your teeth are called bitewings.
I’ve always found the xrays an utter waste of time, but my dentist insists on them.
Actually his nurses screen before I can reach him to remind him how they didn’t work last time.
In my case, the problem area are always behind xray blockers like caps and crowns and a couple of occluded teeth I have.
So he always gets his xrays and then moans about how they don’t show the key areas, and does an unplanned complete visual exam.