Can you see cavities on x-rays?  

answers 0: I always thought you could see a cavity on an x-ray but my dentist said if they are in the middle of the molars you cannot. Is that true? How do you know they are there if you cannot see it on an xray?Once you start to drill can you tell what part of the tooth is decaying? What does it look like - how do you know how much to take out?...Show more answers 1: YOUR DENTIST LIED, Yes you can see them and any infection if its there. answers 2: Yes, you can see cavities on x-rays, but if there is a mercury filling in the tooth, that blocks the x-ray and you can't see the problems well. X-rays are not perfect and typically show about 30% of the problems. The dentist answering here said that using dyes will show where the cavities are and that is very correct. Most use a purple dye that identifies where the infection (cavity) is located and this tells the dentist how much infected tooth needs to be removed. Dentists that do not use this dye generally remove more of the good tooth than needs to be removed and this is not good.Once the infection is removed, the dentist needs to sanitize the tooth. If they use a liquid, typically hydrogen peroxide, that only kills about 30% of the germs and is not the best way to sanitize, although most of them use this method because it is cheap. The ideal way is to use a "dental laser" that kills 99.9% of the germs. Then they should never, ever use mercury fillings (amalgam) because this encourages more infection and leaches mercury vapor that is 1,000 times more than the EPA recommends for air your breathe. The filling will leak mercury for decades. Each time you brush your teeth, eat hot foods or drinks, the fillings will leak mercury for over 1-1/2 hours.Here's a very good video for you to see, especially if you have a dentist that defends using mercury fillings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ylnQ-T7oiA answers 3: Not a dental expert, except for a lot of time in the chair. I am a nurse. I know bacteria can live in closed off spaces, and infection results when the bacteria overwhelms the body's defenses. I don't know if inside a closed tooth is hospitable to bacterial growth or not. X-Ray is very good at showing defects in hard surfaces, like cavities in teeth. Digital is a bit better, if neither show a cavity, I don't think there is a cavity. You don't want more X-Rays, you don't need the extra radiation. Two dentists say it isn't the tooth, it is not the tooth. It seems the symptoms you are having are fairly minor, it is not an emergency. In a few days it will be better, or it will become easier to diagnose. In any case, you aren't going to die or develop disabilities in a few days with an itchy tooth. If it gets worse, you will know it, and then you can go to the doctor or urgent care. You also seem to be spending a LOT of time thinking of this. Try this: Pick out a finger, say your pinkie, that you know has nothing wrong with it.... keep asking yourself if that finger feels normal, does it hurt a little, move correctly? Pretty soon it will start to hurt just a little. It is possible that thinking about it so much is creating the sensations you are experiencing. I would suggest you need to distract yourself from thinking of this for a while. Go to a good movie, go shopping, go somewhere or do something you find fun, and mentally engrossing. See how you feel afterward. Keep yourself mentally occupied for a few days.... answers 4: No you cannot always see a cavity in an x-ray. If the cavity is small and is just encroaching the pit and fissures of the teeth, they may not be visible in the x-ray. It is with the visual examination and with help of special equipment like diagnodent that we can measure the extent of the cavity. When we drill the teeth, we can see the part of the decaying tooth which appears as brown or blackish discoloration. There are special caries or decay detecting dyes which tell us how much to remove....