Diagnostic Imaging
Diagnostic imaging is a general term for the methods of imaging we utilize to comprehensively diagnose and treat dental disease, including dental radiographs, or “x-rays,” 3D digital intraoral scanning, and 2D intraoral and extraoral photographs.
Our office uses digital technology to minimize radiation exposure as much as possible. A full mouth set of x-rays, or “FMX,” is about equivalent to the radiation one is exposed to while flying in an airplane, round-trip, from PDX to LAX.
According to the Oregon Board of Dentistry, “The Standard of Care in Oregon requires that current radiographs are available prior to providing treatment to a patient.” This includes dental prophylaxis, or cleaning in a healthy patient.
Our practice will be following the guidelines set by the Oregon Board of Dentistry, the Oregon Dental Association, and the American Dental Association, among others, to provide you with the most effective and evidence-based care. This means we will be taking regular radiographs while also following the ALARA principle, meaning we will limit your exposure of radiation to what we need to practice dentistry safely with your optimal oral health in mind, but no more. Typically for adults, this means we will take a full mouth set of radiographs approximately every 5-7 years and bitewing radiographs yearly, unless you have established excellent oral health over time, where we can extend the bitewing radiographs to every other year. We will prescribe additional radiographs only based on individual need and risk factors, which may be when an abnormality is being monitored, a tooth concern arises, or a procedure is needed.
For more information about dental x-rays, we encourage you to visit:
https://www.mouthhealthy.org/all-topics-a-z/x-rays
Our Smile Healthy Blog post about panoramic images, or “panos,” which are a tool for oral cancer screening.