In order to provide you with the best possible care, it is essential for our orthodontist to accurately evaluate and diagnose your oral health. One of the state-of-the-art tools we use to do that is panoramic and digital cephalometric X-rays. While standard X-rays, called bitewing X-rays, provide us with a view of a few teeth and the supporting bone structure, panoramic and digital cephalometric X-rays allow us to view the full upper and lower dental arches — including all of the teeth, the upper and lower jawbones, and the surrounding facial structures. Using these X-rays, our oral health professionals can:

• Assess the need for orthodontics and evaluate the progress of treatment
• Diagnose impacted wisdom teeth and other impacted teeth
• Analyze the development of periodontal disease
• Evaluate the TMJ (jaw joint) and diagnose a TMJ disorder
• Detect oral cancer
• Plan dental implant placement
• Diagnose cavities (tooth decay) and other dental problems
• Evaluate the extent of dental or facial trauma
• Detect abscesses, cysts and tumors

Using the panoramic and digital cephalometric X-ray machines are fast and comfortable. The machines simply rotate around your head and provide our orthodontist with high-definition, nearly instantaneous images that we can then use to evaluate your oral health. We invite you to call or visit us today to learn more about panoramic and digital cephalometric X-rays.