Periapical
Bitewings
Panoramic
If you have ever wondered about the effect of dental x-rays on your body or the amount of radiation that is produced with each press of the button, then you are not alone. Traditionally, dental x-ray technology has been exceptionally safe. With ultra-sensitive x-ray film and highly focused x-ray beams, the exposure to the dental patient was minimal.
Today, with the use of digital x-ray imaging, the radiation dose is even lower than ever before. In fact, compared to other sources of natural and medical radiation, dental imaging generally produces a significantly lower dose.
Since radiation is naturally created in the environment, it is helpful to compare medical and dental radiation exposure to a day in the sun. In the course of normal daily activities, you can expect to accumulate a certain amount of radiation. For instance, on a flight from Los Angeles to London, the estimated radiation dose is equal to approximately 10 days of natural radiation exposure.
When Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) is used in the dental office, the radiation dose is the equivalent of 11 days of natural exposure. In comparison, a CT scan of the abdomen produces the equivalent of 3 years of exposure! That means that an abdominal CT scan requires a radiation dose that is 99% greater than an image of your wisdom teeth.
A single dental x-ray, the type used to capture a single tooth, generates about a days’ worth of exposure. A two-dimensional panoramic image of your head and jaw produces a dose comparable to 2 or 3 days of natural exposure. A chest x-ray on plain film will produce about 10 days of radiation.
A more thorough comparison between real radiation exposure values in milliseiverts can be found below in the accompanying tables labeled 1-3.
Table 1
| Natural Radiation Exposure~ 3 mSv per year6 | Estimated mSv (milliSeiverts) | Comparable to natural radiation exposure for: |
| Daily Exposure to natural radiation | 0.008 | ~ 1 day |
| Flight: Los Angeles to London | 0.0807 | ~ 10 days |
Table 2
| Dental Imaging | Estimated mSv (2007 ICRP tissue weights) | Comparable to natural radiation exposure for: |
| Single intraoral x-ray, film | <0.0083 mSv8 | ~1 day |
| Intraoral full mouth series(F-speed film, round cone) | 0.170 mSv9 | ~ 22 days |
| 2-D Panoramic (digital) | 0.014 – 0.024 mSv10 | ~2-3 days |
| 3-D Dental Cone Beam(includes multiple fields of view) | 0.003-1.073mSv11,12 | ~ 8-134 days |
| 3-D Cone Beam (i-CAT 0.3 voxel 13x16cm)1 | 0.087 mSv13 | ~ 11 days |
Table 3
| Medical imaging15 | Estimated mSv | Comparable to natural radiation exposure for: |
| CT of skull (Somaton 64MDCT) | 0.860 mSv14 | ~ 108 days |
| CT of abdomen | 10 mSv | 3 years |
| CT of thorax | 10 mSv | 3 years |
| CT colonography | 10 mSv | 3 years |
| CT lower GI | 2-4 mSv | 1 year |
| CT upper GI | 6-8 mSv | 2.5 years |
| Chest x-ray (plain film) | 0.080 mSv | 10 days |