[Erich Hardy]

Hi,
I was going through a hell like situation during the last couple of weeks. I was suffering from serious tooth ache and was unable to sleep during the night for days. I consulted a doctor and has finished up with the first round of checkup. And he has scheduled the second round of examination on 28th of this month. But, during our conversation, he told me that, he will be examining the tooth issues using digital dental X-ray. And I was not aware of the mechanisms. Few days back, when I shared this with one of my close mates, he told me that, it looks good but it may have some radiations. So, when I heard it, I was tensed and also was curious to know more of that.
Has anyone used the digital dental X-ray's? Does it have any negative impact on us? If it has the radiations how will the consequences be? I urgently required your expert stand point on my case.
I am currently searching for the pros and cons of using the digital dental X-ray. Any help on this will be highly appreciated. I was able to read that the modern radio graphs emit much less radiations. Is it true? Hoping it to be true.
Your suggestions and guidance will be get me through this confused situation. Will wait for the replies to show up.
Thanks in advance

[andi*pandi]

So, any dentists about? Do dentists use Macs to do their digital dental xrays?

[Waragainstsleep]

Getting the odd X-ray is fine and won't hurt you. Medical staff leave the room because if they were exposed to dozens of X-rays a day for years and years then the risk is significant.

Don't fret, just get your X-ray done.

[Laminar]

Spam?

[subego]

The original SNL had a brilliant routine when Three Mile Island happened. Jimmy Carter (Dan Akroyd) gets irradiated and becomes 50 feet tall.

But the best part was from the press conference, where an official says "nothing to worry about, it's just like getting a chest x-ray... over and over again".


Phun Phact edit: when Carter visited TMI, no one was really sure the thing wasn't still going to blow up, but Carter felt he should take the personal risk of visiting to reassure the public. Mad props for that.

[osiris]

I imagine airport security has the same issue with repetitive X-rays.

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by subego 

Phun Phact edit: when Carter visited TMI, no one was really sure the thing wasn't still going to blow up, but Carter felt he should take the personal risk of visiting to reassure the public. Mad props for that.

Given he was a nuclear engineer in the Navy, I'm guessing he had a good understanding of what the dangers might be.
From Wikipedia...

On December 12, 1952, an accident with the experimental NRX reactor at Atomic Energy of Canada's Chalk River Laboratories caused a partial meltdown resulting in millions of liters of radioactive water flooding the reactor building's basement and leaving the reactor's core ruined. Carter was ordered to Chalk River to lead a U.S. maintenance crew...to assist in the shutdown of the reactor. The painstaking process required each team member to don protective gear and be lowered individually into the reactor for a few minutes at a time, limiting their exposure to radioactivity while they disassembled the crippled reactor.

[subego]

I think people still get surprised Carter has a solid handle on nuclear physics.

[BadKosh]

Sounds like root canal time. Crown to follow. Get some vicodin. Been there, done that X 5.

[P]

Originally Posted by osiris 

I imagine airport security has the same issue with repetitive X-rays.

The X-rays (of the carry-on) are bad enough, but the back-scatter thing is probably worse.

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