I am certain you have heard the news stories about the study that has associated dental x-rays with the increased risk of developing meningioma, a type of brain cancer. How valid is this study?
The authors of this study did not perform any clinical research other than to interview patients who had developed meningioma. The patients were asked to recall everything about their health, and the major memories they had in common were of dental x-rays. Scientifically, this is an unreliable method for a study because it is based on “recall bias“. Also, since this was an older population group, any radiation they received from dental x-rays was far greater than what is used today. Digital x-rays, which we use, results in very low and very short exposure. Background radiation, which we all are exposed to every second of our lives, is much more than you will receive from dental x-rays.
We use x-rays to look at bone levels around teeth, check for lesions in the bone, and look for decay between teeth. Finding problems early can prevent major problems later. For more information, go to www.ada.org.
