Dental X-rays: Will they Kill You or Save You?
written by Jimmy Kilimitzoglou, DDS of e.s.i. Healthy Dentistry
Cosmic rays bombard the surface of the earth all the time. The earth’s soil and rocks give off radioactive substances. Living things like plants absorb radioactive materials from the soil and they pass it up the food chain. But living things, humans included, are used to being exposed to this background radiation, so they adapt and constantly repair the damage caused by it.
Brazil nuts are curiously the most radioactive edible treat. They are more than 1000 times more radioactive than any other food.
Some kitty litter is made from clay which is slightly radioactive. Bananas are naturally high in potassium which is a mix of isotopes, one of them being radioactive. If you try to bring a bunch of bananas or kitty litter across the border you will set off radiation alerts at the checkpoint.
Fluorescent lights, cigarettes, glowing toys and watches, irradiated gem stones, tiles, granite, concrete, bricks are also radioactive. Many smoke detectors contain radioactive isotopes. Although the doses are very low, airport security scans use low dose x rays.
Let’s relate background radiation to dental x-rays. We could say that one dental x ray is equivalent to a few minutes of background radiation. This may sound correct but it’s a whole lot less dangerous. One concentrated burst of x ray over a small area of the skin in one tenth of a second in a targeted area of non-radiosensitive structures is profoundly different than the whole body being bathed in a regular stream of radiation over 5 minutes. Organs that are sensitive to radiation are the brain, eyes and glands like the thyroid, mammary glands, ovaries, testes and pancreas. The x ray machines have these columns that are shielded directing the energy to a small, targeted field.
Most data about cancer risk is based on the biological effect of ionizing radiation reports the government receives as they follow nuclear bomb survivors from Japan and other victims of radiation over time. To compare single bursts of x rays from dental exams and extrapolate them to a whole-body dose that atomic bomb survivors received and then compare it to cancer risk decades later doesn’t seem scientifically valid. Looking at the real scientific evidence, radiation from dental exams has never been proven to raise the risk of cancer incidence.
Weighing the pros and cons is imperative. If the pros far outweigh the cons, in the name of health, we obtain radiographs. The concept of ALARA refers to keeping radiation exposure “as low as reasonably achievable.” With digital x-rays, we can decrease the exposure to less than 90% of that used with x-ray film. This way we let the computer software do all the hard work instead of the radiation. Using lead aprons with thyroid shields is always common practice to protect sensitive organs. Taking 4 checkup digital x-rays is the equivalent of walking to your car from the mall on a sunny day or tanning for 15 mins. You get 20 times more radiation from smoking a pack of cigarettes and 40 times more radiation from a flight from New York to Los Angeles. But it can save you a lot of time, money and pain if it detects a cavity, a hidden resorptive process within a tooth, or even a suspicious bony lesion. Apart from gum disease and dental decay, other conditions that x rays help us diagnose are infections, cysts, impacted teeth and bone conditions, tumors and cancers. They can save your teeth but also save your life.
