X-rays are a great tool when it comes to finding cavities. However, they are not perfect. While they have been the norm for over 100 years for dentists, it doesn’t mean they are going to find everything. There are many reasons that it can be difficult to detect a cavity.
While your dentist may be incredibly skilled and qualified, they may also miss things simply because they just cannot see through to the inside of your tooth.
The Reasons You May Not Know About All of Your Cavities
Your dentist takes x-rays to see inside your teeth. However, even an x-ray struggles to see through something as hard as the enamel of your teeth. It can see some shadows and shading, but it cannot see everything going on inside your teeth. It is all about perspective.
If you were to look at a shed from the front, all you would see is the door, but it takes you walking to the side to see if it is six feet deep or twenty. All your dentist gets is that single view, so he or she must use other tools to see how deep the shed may be.
Plus, when you have already had fillings, those fillings show up on an x-ray so brightly, it can be easy to miss any decay that is coming in around the filling. This is how these cavities tend to get so large before being noticed.
Pain can tell you when you have a problem in your mouth, but it usually only joins the party when there is something significantly wrong. If you have already noticed pain in your mouth, make sure to contact our office as soon as you can. That way, you can get the pain, and the cavity if that’s what the problem is, taken care of.