Dangerous Dentist X-Rays Are Probably Not Going To Kill You

Finally, a reason not to feel quite so bad about forgetting nearly every year to make our annual dentist appointments. A new study in the American Cancer Society's journal Cancer shows a link between certain kinds of dental X-rays and a common, benign (but still dangerous) form of brain tumor. Though the issue is more of a problem for people who were frequenting the dentist in the 1960s.

Basically, if you were subject to panorex exams (the ones taken outside of the mouth to get all your teeth in one film) on a yearly basis you are more likely to develop brain tumors. Especially if you got those X-rays "in the past, when radiation exposure was greater than in the current era."

To come to their conclusions, researchers looked at 1,433 people who had been diagnosed with meningioma and 1,350 people from similar backgrounds who had not. They found that patients who had had panorex exams before they turned 10 were 4.9 times as likely to develop meningioma as those who had them later. Further, those who had them frequently, but not necessarily when before they were ten, were about three times as likely to develop tumors as those who never had a panorex exam. Still, they trusted the memory of those patients regarding their X-ray's, so....

In a statement, the American Dental Association recognized that the study could be flawed, but wasn't dismissive: "the results rely on the individuals’ memories of having dental x-rays taken years earlier. Studies have shown that the ability to recall information is often imperfect...Also, the study acknowledges that some of the subjects received dental x-rays decades ago when radiation exposure was greater. Radiation rates were higher in the past due to the use of old x-ray technology and slower speed film."

All of which is to say: stay calm and carry on! Don't stop going to the dentist and visit your doctor for regular checkups. Meningioma tumors are often asymptomatic—though they can reach the size of a baseball and can affect speech and motor control—are rarely malignant and often don't even require treatment beyond observation.