Patient Information
Benefits Recipients
Patients who receive benefits must bring written evidence of the benefit you receive.
Failure to do so will result in you being charged for all dental treatment.
Dental X-Rays
Your Well-Being
- Dental X-Rays are undertaken to investigate suspected problems with your teeth and gums and to plan treatments.
- Your dentist or dental care professional can explain how the information gained will help to improve your diagnosis or treatment.
- These X-rays allow for faster and more effective interventions and can save you discomfort and pain.
- Our overriding concern is to ensure that when you have an X-ray, the benefits from making the right diagnosis or providing the correct treatment outweigh the very low risk involved with the X-ray itself. We make sure that this is the case before you have an X-ray.
Our Standards
- Our X-ray equipment is well maintained and regularly checked by appropriate qualified staff.
- This ensures that the amount of radiation we use is kept as low as possible to get the pictures we need. If there are any technical problems during the X-ray, we will tell you.
About X-Rays and Radiation
- X-ray machines use radiation to generate the “pictures” we need for your diagnosis and treatment.
- We are all exposed to natural background radiation every day of our lives. This comes from our environment, the air we breathe, the food we eat, and even from outer space (cosmic rays).
Putting It in Perspective
- Each dental X-ray gives us a very small additional amount of radiation on top of this natural background.
- The examination you will be having today carries a very low risk.
Consent
Please feel free to ask your dentist or dental care professional if you have any further questions or concerns. You can refuse the X-ray if you do not feel you have sufficient information.
Pregnancy
Because the risk to a developing baby from a dental X-ray is negligible, we are not legally required to ask any intrusive questions about pregnancy.
Age
The risks from X-rays are much lower for older people and a little higher for children. Extra care is taken with younger patients.