Dental X-Rays
in Petaling Jaya

X-rays are taken only when they change what we can diagnose or plan. Common reasons are a baseline at a new-patient examination, check-up images to look for decay between the teeth (usually every six months to two years depending on your risk), toothache or swelling, and planning before extractions, root canal treatment, braces or implants. They are also used to check wisdom teeth. Tell us if you are or may be pregnant, or if you have recent X-rays from another clinic that we can use instead.

Radiation dose is measured in microsieverts, which means nothing to most people, so the useful comparison is natural background radiation. Everyone receives roughly two to three millisieverts a year simply from the ground, the air and food, which works out at around six or seven microsieverts a day.

Against that, a digital intraoral X-ray is in the region of a day of background, a panoramic OPG a few days, and a cephalometric X-ray about a day. A dental CBCT covers a much wider range, from a few days for a small field looking at one implant site up to a few weeks for a large field of both jaws. For further context, a long haul flight delivers a few tens of microsieverts from cosmic radiation at altitude, and a medical CT scan of the head is roughly an order of magnitude above the largest dental CBCT.

None of this makes a dental X-ray free, and that is the point of taking one only when it answers a question that changes what we do. It does mean that the dose is not a reason to decline an image that would otherwise prevent a misdiagnosis.

• Children are more sensitive to radiation than adults, so the field is kept as small as the question allows and images are taken only where something cannot be seen or felt directly.
• There is no fixed schedule for repeat X-rays. The interval is set by your decay risk and your gum condition, which is why one patient is imaged every couple of years and another every five.
• A new patient baseline is worth taking, because most of the value of a dental X-ray comes from comparing it with the last one rather than from reading it alone.
• In pregnancy, urgent images are taken with shielding and non-urgent ones wait.
• Recent images from another clinic are almost always usable. Ask us before agreeing to have anything repeated.

• No recovery is needed. You can eat, drive and return to normal activities immediately.
• The dentist explains the findings and how they affect your treatment plan before you leave.
• Keep copies of your images if you are seeing another clinic. Recent images usually avoid a repeat exposure.