Dental X-Rays For Your Child: When Are They Needed?
Like most forms of medical care, dentistry involves a surface examination (what the dentist can see during a visual inspection), and also a detailed analysis of what lies beneath—and this is why x-rays are common in dentistry. It's an essential diagnostic tool for your family dentist, so what determines when a child's first dental x-ray is needed?
Routine
Although a dental x-ray is a routine part of family dental care, it may not yet be part of your child's dental care routine. There's a very simple reason for this: it's not needed at this stage. Even though an x-ray is perfectly safe, a dentist won't order one unless there's a key reason for it. For a child's primary dentition (the emergence and ongoing function of their baby teeth), an x-ray is not necessarily required.
Dentition
It's when a child moves to the mixed dentition stage of their dental development that an x-ray becomes beneficial and even necessary. The primary (baby) teeth are being shed and replaced with permanent, secondary (adult) teeth. This involves root resorption—which is the emerging adult tooth dissolving the root system of the baby tooth that preceded it. The resulting teeth are intended to last a lifetime, and it's the development and eruption of these teeth that warrants a dental x-ray.
Typical Time
Your child may not receive their first dental x-ray until their baby teeth start to be replaced with their adult equivalents. This is a typical time for your child's first dental x-ray, and you can expect them to be periodically ordered from this point onwards. Of course, not every dental checkup will require an x-ray though. But what does it mean when your family dentist wants to perform an x-ray on a younger child—one who may not even have received their full set of baby teeth yet?
Younger Patients
X-rays can be ordered at a younger age when a dentist feels it's needed. As a parent, this isn't anything to be alarmed about and is simply your family dentist being diligent. Children at an elevated risk of dental caries (cavities) may receive an earlier x-ray, as might children at a higher risk of a dental developmental disorder. This could include genetic conditions which may affect the growth of teeth—such as a cleft palate or lip.
The age when a child receives their first dental x-ray isn't set in stone, and although it happens earlier for some, there's nothing unusual about it taking place when your child is a little older.
For more info about family dentistry, contact a local company.