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
Different colors of light have different wavelengths: blue is a shorter wavelength than red. But you can have longer wavelengths than we can see (so we don’t call them light anymore cause we don’t see them) but there’s infra red and radio waves that are longer than what we can see. And there are wavelengths that are shorter than what we can see (ultra violet, x-rays, gamma rays).
Most objects we interact with light doesn’t travel through you cannot see through the wall in front of you or your hand. There are some things that light can pass through like glass. And there are somethings where some wavelengths of light pass through but others do not (something that is clear but has a color tint to it is blocking some wavelengths and letting the ones of the color you see through).
X-Rays with their shorter wavelengths pass through a lot more things. And if we measure how much x-ray comes through any given area we get an idea of the different densities of the object. We can see if a tooth is nice and solid or if there are thinning areas inside them (cavities, etc). We can also see what the tooth looks like below your gums which are covering up a lot of the tooth so we can tell if anything is wrong in areas we cannot see.
The problem with x-rays is the wavelengths are so short they’re about the size of atoms and the bonds inside chemical molecules. With a lot of exposure, x-rays can do bad things like break down the bonds inside the DNA in your cells. That is bad. So they limit the dose and direct it just where it is needed. To avoid risk to your important organs, they put an apron made of lead to cut down on the risk of messing up the DNA in your important organs and especially avoiding hitting your reproductive organs where breaking down the DNA could cause problems if you try to have kids later. If the DNA gets messed up all kinds of bad things can happen… the most common is cancer. That said most newer X-ray machines in dentist offices are designed to use as low an amount of x-rays as possible and they’re designed to focus the beam very tightly so no stray xrays go else where, so the apron might not be as important as it was 40 years ago.
But X-rays give a lot of valuable information and if treated carefully and safely, a little x-ray radiation doesn’t pose much of a risk… but they do everything they can to keep the risk as low as possible. If someone just took an x-ray and started trying to see all the different parts inside of their body… they would probably give themselves so much of a dosage that they would have a much higher risk of causing damage or starting cancer growth.
It isn’t exactly radioactive like uranium or plutonium, but it is “ionizing radiation”
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