what X-rays of my teeth at the dentist show and why it has to be radioactive and what the heavy apron does
In: Physics
Xrays are a form of light and are NOT radioactive. All forms of light radiate, but light radiation is not necessarily dangerous. The problem is that xrays are high energy and thus have “ionizing radiation” which means that if radiation occurs in your body the energy can change your molecules. This feature of xrays is an unintended consequence of us using them.
So why do we use xrays? Unlike visible light, they have the energy and property of being able to pass completely through your entire body, but your body tissue can block some of the xrays from passing through depending on what kind of tissue the xray passes through. Bone and teeth block a lot of xrays from passing through, while your gums and tongue block fewer and fluid and abscess block even fewer. A radiologist or dentist can look at the images and see if there are black spots on your teeth crowns to look for cavities or look for dark spots around your teeth roots to see radicular cysts/abscesses which respectively block less xrays than teeth and gums.
So why the heavy apron? The apron contains (typically) lead which blocks a ton of xray particles. We don’t want xrays to scatter from the beam and hit other parts of your body that we are not trying to image because that is risk for no benefit. In actuality, for dentist xrays, xray scatter probably doesn’t matter due to small dose and beam size and the lead aprons are typically stored incorrectly, so they probably don’t do much other than make your feel safe. But lead aprons are still very useful for interventional radiology which deals with much higher and longer xray doses.
Source: Radiologist, not physicist. Sorry if wrong physics terminology is used
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