What The Dentist Sees in Your X-rays

A series of photos below will walk you through the progression of some cavities, and what we are looking out for after your most common X-rays.

This is an X-ray of someone without radiographically visible cavities. But you can see an impacted 3rd molars (wisdom tooth) in the bottom right corner hanging out and chilling.
Dentists will focus onto the areas that are circled, you can appreciate the darker areas in the hard outer enamel. These dark spots start off as triangular in shape as the cavity is working its way through the hard outer enamel.
Here we can see more triangular shaped cavities in the outer Enamel. The circle with the star, and the lower left circle shows a cavity that has broken through the hard outer enamel. Once this break through the hard outer Enamel occurs, the cavity is in the soft inner Dentin where it can run rampant.
The circled area here depicts the cavity that has decimated the soft inner Dentin of the tooth and has found its way into the pulp/nerve/blood supply to the tooth. A Root Canal will be needed to save this tooth.

Now you know what to look for at your next cleaning and exam appointment with your dentist when they swing that monitor or film with your x-rays on them. This is not an exhaustive list of x-rays a dentist might need of your teeth, but these are some of the most common. Read through some of our previous posts to learn more about cavities at www.teethandchiefs.com.

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The Author of this post does not assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, malpractice, negligence, or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, instructions or ideas contained. The foregoing parties will not be liable for any direct, special, indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages as a result of the reader’s use of this information.

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