X-RAYS FOR TEETH

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10277, 12 May 1919, Page 7

X-RAYS FOR TEETH

GREAT ADVANCE IN. DENTAL . ■■' -:■ -PRACTICE. - ' - ""'

A now development in dentistry—tho use of X-ray photography—seems likely to have important results (states a London paper). In the past iite dentist has had to work more or less in the dark under a handicap of which patients have sometimes become painfully aware —but by making use of the new "dental radiography" ho can now see the condition of ■ every tooth right down to the uase; of :tbe root, f There ,is no longer ally.need' to ihakeany nerve-shattering preliminary investigation, or to be in any doubt as to whether a certain tooth has an abscess at the root or not.

At present no London dentisti haa an ' X-ray plant of his own, but already [ there is a doctor in New Cavendish I street who spends most of his time taking photographs of the teeth of patients who have been sent to him by other doctors or by dentists. He showed several prints to a Press representative. In oho an abscess was clearly shown as a dark mass, and in another an unhealthy septic state was indicated at the root of a tooth. Bad work by a dentist has no chance of escaping the X-rays.

Perhaps the most striking photographs were those of children, showing very clearly the number and position of second teeth still in the gum. Another similar print was of a grown man who'had been troubled by a mysterious pain. The X-rays revealed a late "wisdom" tooth still in the gum, which had no chance of coming properly to tho surface.