Technology
With the help of our dental technology, our dental team strives to offer you the best service possible within our Bowmanville office.
Dental technology helps us treat your smile efficiently.
Learn more about the dental technology that helps us, help you achieve and maintain optimal oral health.
Digital X-Rays
X-rays help diagnose any problems under the surface or around the foundations of the teeth.
Digital X-rays are sent directly to a computer and can be viewed on screen, stored or printed.
There are several benefits of using this technology, including:
- less radiation and no wait time for the X-rays to develop – the images are available on screen seconds after being taken
- the image can be enhanced and enlarged, making it easier for your dentist to see the problem
- images can be electronically sent to another dentist or specialist (if necessary)
There are two main types of dental X-rays:
Intraoral (meaning the X-ray is taken from inside the mouth) and
Extraoral (meaning the X-ray is taken from outside the mouth)
Intraoral X-rays
Intraoral X-rays are the most common type of dental X-ray taken and provide a lot of detail which allows your dentist to find cavities, check the health of the tooth root and surrounding bone, check developing teeth and monitor your general oral health.
Extraoral X-rays
Extraoral X-rays show teeth but their main focus is the jaw and skull.
These X-rays do not provide the detail found with intraoral x-rays and therefore are not used for detecting cavities or for identifying problems with individual teeth.
Instead, extraoral X-rays are used to look for impacted teeth, monitor development of the jaw, and to identify potential problems between teeth and jaw and the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) or other bones of the face.
*Note: Pregnant women should not have X-rays unless in emergencies.
Panoramic X-rays
This technology shows the entire mouth area – all the teeth in both the upper and lower jaws – on a single X-ray. This type of X-ray is useful for detecting the position of fully emerged as well as emerging teeth, can identify impacted teeth and aid in the diagnosis of tumors.