Radiation Amount in Standard Dental X-Rays

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Dr. Larry Klein, and I'm a dentist here in St. Petersburg, Florida. A very, very good question that we get asked is how much radiation is in dental x-rays. Well now that has sort of have changed, because you have the standard dental x-rays and you also have digital dental x-rays. But just to give you a sort of comparison, the average person gets about three point zero millisieverts worth of radiation. That includes things from T.V. screens, microwaves, outer space, okay. A four dental x-rays that would just check for decay, that's what you would have at a routine visit would be about point zero four millisieverts. So way below that, that would be a standard x-ray. I have found now that using digital were about half of that, okay. Also if you have got a full mouth series, which you may get as a new patient or if you have a periodontal exam, you would be finding that you would be having about point one five millisieverts. A chest x-ray in a medical term would be about point zero eight. So dental x-rays are about half the amount of the medical x-ray of a chest x-ray. The dental and the digital x-rays are even half of that. So if you have any other questions about dental x-rays and the amount of radiation, please give me a call. I am Dr. Larry Klein here in St. Petersburg, Florida where a smile is contagious."