Are Dental X-rays Dangerous?

(CNN) -- Every six months like clockwork, Melissa O'Brien, a freelance writer in Kennesaw, Georgia, takes her two children, Alexandra and Evan, to the dentist for a cleaning. They're nearly perfect patients -- Alexandra, 13, has no cavities, and Evan, 10, has had only one -- but O'Brien suspects she may not be the dentist's favorite mom, because when the dentist suggests X-rays, O'Brien sometimes says no, and she can tell that doesn't sit well.

"I usually get a hard time from the dentist, like I'm a bad mother or something," she says. "Maybe I'm being silly as a parent. Maybe it's such a minute amount of radiation, but I think, my kid is going to get how many X-rays in his life, and if I can prevent some of them why not do it?"

Maybe she is being silly -- but maybe not. It's impossible to tell, because there are no good studies showing the right number of X-rays to give someone who isn't having any particular dental problem. While some dentists do bitewing X-rays every six months on a healthy patient, others hardly ever do them, relying instead on a visual examination of the mouth with a sharp explorer and a mirror.

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