DENTAL WORK
First, obtain a good quality panoramic X-ray of your mouth,
in duplicate if possible. A panoramic views the entire mouth,
including jaw and sinuses, allowing you to see much more than
single teeth. Take one negative home to study.
On your panoramic you can identify metal, plastic, root ca-
nals, crowns, abscesses along roots, cavitations (hollow spaces
or mushy bone at old extraction sites), and other suspicious
things. Circle whatever your dentist or radiologist identifies as
suspect for future reference. Make notes.
Here is a sample of a panoramic X-ray that has been printed.
Remember that a print of an X-ray negative reverses the light
and dark areas. Since you will be comparing this print with your
own X-ray, you must compare light areas on the print shown
here to dark areas on your X-ray.
R is right side; L is left side; M is maxillary sinus; E is ethmoid
sinus; and the teeth are numbered from 1 to 32, with 1 being the
upper right wisdom tooth