All About Digital Dental X-Rays
How do traditional x-rays work?
Traditional x-ray technology first emerged in 1895 when a German physicist named Wilhelm Roentgen took the first radiograph of his wife’s hand. Modern (but not digital) x-ray technology works by projecting a stream of electromagnetic radiation that interacts with an anode in an x-ray tube. That interaction produces “x-rays” that are targeted specifically at the part of the body being examined. When the x-rays contact the tissues, they create an image on metal film. The softest tissues in your body don’t generate an image because the x-rays aren’t absorbed by those tissues. The densest parts of our bodies do appear on the images clearly because they absorb those x-rays. Just like old-school camera film (in non-digital cameras), white or gray images show the dense tissues that absorbed x-rays while black areas show portions of your body or the image field that did not absorb any x-rays.
How do digital x-rays work?
Digital x-rays are sometimes referred to as “direct radiography.” That’s because digital x-rays don’t require a film to capture the image created by the x-rays passing through your body, which film has to be developed. Instead, digital radiography immediately transfers data to a computer that can create images that can be manipulated, edited, deleted and transferred immediately. Think of it like the digital camera in your phone; the image you capture is available immediately with no film cartridge or processing required. Digital images are generated by the conversion of x-ray energy absorbed by your body into electrical charges that are represented by grayscale images (images made of as many as 65,536 different shades of gray) that quantify the amount of x-ray energy absorbed by the body when the image was being captured.
What are the advantages of digital x-rays?
An increasing number of dentists have made financial and training investments in advanced technology to be able to provide digital x-rays in Richmond Hill. There are several reasons why many dentists prefer providing digital dental x-rays near you as opposed to traditional film-based radiographs. Here are several benefits of getting digital x-rays from a dentist near you:
- Digital x-rays use up to 90% less radiation than traditional x-rays, meaning that patients can be increasingly confident in the safety of digital x-rays compared to traditional radiography
- Digital x-rays capture much higher quality images that can be magnified, rotated and cropped to ensure you dentist can see precisely what they need to see without the need to capture more and more images
- Digital images can be transferred instantly into your medical file — and to other members of your medical team — instantly and digitally
- Whereas traditional dental x-ray technology requires that films be processed with several types of chemicals, digital x-rays require no developing or chemicals to process the images. That means that digital x-rays are a more environmentally friendly alternative
- Digitally captured images are available to be reviewed by your dentist immediately while they’re being captured and “live” — without having to wait for films to be developed. This means that your appointments and consultations may be shorter and that it is more likely that your immediate questions, concerns and curiosities will be answered on the spot. The immediacy of digital dental x-rays hastens and eases the development of treatment plans.
Ask your dentist what type of dental x-rays they provide. X-rays are an essential part of your diagnostic and treatment plan. If the benefits of digital x-rays reflect your personal priorities and preferences, use the availability of this technology to help you to choose the best dentist near you for your family.