Radiologist Refutes Risks In Dental X-Rays, Mammograms
Emails into the ABC-7 newsroom prompted a look into whether radiation from dental X-rays and mammograms can actually put patients at risk.
The emails quote “The Dr. Oz Show” in which Dr. Mehmet Oz tells his viewers to request neck aprons and thyroid guards when at the dentist and a mammography appointment, respectively.
In the emails, which are identical forwards, it reads, “He demonstrated that on the apron the dentist puts on you for your dental X-rays there is a little flap that can be lifted up and wrapped around your neck. Many dentists don’t bother to use it.”
In the episode which aired in December, Oz said, “Never go into a dentist’s office for any X-ray – whether it be digital or not – and not put the thyroid guard on because this protects your neck.”
“There’s no risk of developing cancer from radiation from mammograms or dental work-ups,” said Dr. Arturo Castro, the Las Palmas/Del Sol radiology program director.
“Nowadays we have newer, more complex, sophisticated x-ray equipment,” Castro added. “(The risk that) Radiation that could scatter to other body structures isn’t there any longer.”
The spokeswoman for the American Dental Association, Ada Cooper, said her profession depends on X-rays to determine if there is an underlying problem that cannot be seen with the naked eye. But how often X-rays are needed, she added, is dependent on the patient’s dental health.
