The truth about dental X-rays

The risk of X-rays:

Did you know that the radiation received from 20 dental x-rays is equivalent to an entire day of unprotected exposure to the sun? How many times do you go to a little league game or a day at the park on a day that is not hot enough for you to remember to apply sunscreen. Dental X-rays started being used about 100 years ago and took 25 minutes to take. With new advances in technology, x-rays have become digital which cuts the time and exposure rate to a less than a minute to take and merely seconds to develop. A typical dental x-ray exposes you to only about .5-3 mrem. The average person is exposed to 120 times that every year from outside, background sources alone (http://www.new.ans.org/pi/resources/dosechart/ -check it for yourself).  The lower doses, like the ones in digital dental x-rays are not as harmful as the larger doses because your body has time to recover. At Nesconset Dental Associates, your well being is our number one priority which is why all of our x-ray equipment is the latest in digital x-rays. It allows us as dental care providers to proactively see any cavities or other issues that may be occurring before you can feel them, with the lowest dose of radiation allowable.
Here are a list of procedures that use radiation and the amount of radiation used in each. The following figures for comparison were taken from the publication "RADIATION",by radiologist Dr. Martin Ecker and the science writer Norton Bramesco and as you can see, dental x-rays are very low on the list in terms of the amount of radiation that they possess:
HIGH DOSE GROUP ............................ mrem
Barium enema: lower GI series .............. 875
Pelvimetry ................................. 595
Mammography: breast examination (per breast) 500
Lumbrosacral spine ......................... 450
Small bowel series ......................... 422
IV pyelogram (kidneys, ureter, and bladder . 420
Lumbar spine ............................... 347
Thoracic Spine ............................. 247
MEDIUM DOSE GROUP
Gallbladder ................................ 168
Abdomen .................................... 147
Ribs ....................................... 143
Pelvis ..................................... 133
Skull ...................................... 78
Hip ........................................ 72
LOW DOSE GROUP
Cervical spine (neck) ...................... 52
Femur (upper leg) .......................... 21
Dental (full mouth series) ................. 9
Dental (one x-ray) ......................... 0.5