Preparation – PQ’ed part two – the Dentist
Would you believe me if I told you I was actually looking forward to my dentist visit?
Well I was – because it put me one step closer to getting fully PQ’ed (Physically Qualified). Not to mention I would have bright, shiny, clean teeth!
Clean and check
My visit started off just as I expected, I met with Sarah, the dental hygienist, who gave my teeth and mouth a complete exam. She looked at my gums and found no obvious problems then looked at my teeth to check for any surface cavities. Oops, she suspects two small cavities - she documented them in my chart so the Dentist could take a closer look.
After her initial exam, she also gave me a thorough cleaning. This can be a little messy as water often splashes around a bit during this process - so I had to wear protective glasses to prevent water from getting into my eyes.
Alex getting her teeth cleaned. Just look at those pearly whites!
The X-rays
My exam also required me to have two different kinds of x-rays: Pano – also known as full mouth - and a Bitewing. It’s been several years since I’ve had an x-ray taken of my teeth and the ‘new’ machines are very different from what I remember.
The Pano x-ray
In the same way a panoramic photograph allows you to see a large landscape in a single picture, the Pano x-ray allows the dentist to see your entire mouth in a single x-ray. In other words, it takes a picture of all of your teeth at the same time. This type of x-ray is useful for detecting if your teeth are too crowded. Luckily, I had my wisdom teeth removed when I was a teenager – so there were no problems with crowded teeth.
The Pano x-ray machine was very large – a little intimidating. I stood by myself at the end of a long hallway, face to face, with the machine.
Alex getting a Pano x-ray. The Pano x-ray looks intimidating but it was an amazingly simple process.
The two arms that you see in the picture swept in a circle around my head and that was it – the whole process only took a few seconds. Amazingly simple!
Here's what my teeth look like with the Pano x-ray.
The Bitewing x-rays
Dentists and dental hygienists are trained to notice cavities on the surface of your teeth but the bitewing x-ray helps them to detect any cavities hiding in-between your teeth. Here’s how it worked:
Sarah, my dental hygienist, placed a small, T-shaped film in-between my teeth and tongue.
I then had to bite down on a red piece of plastic (this is the ‘bite’ part of the bitewing) and the wings of the x-ray film covered both my upper and lower teeth in one area (this is the ‘wing’ part of the bitewing)
We did this four times in order to get an x-ray of all of my teeth.
A bitewing x-ray. Sarah, my dental hygienist, is showing me how the Bitewing x-ray works.
The dentist then took my x-rays and looked at the gaps in-between my teeth. He was looking for any dark areas – that’s an indications of a cavity. Luckily, the bitewing x-ray showed that I did not have any cavities between my teeth. Whew! But he did confirm the hygienist’s suspicion…I did have two small surface cavities. Rats!