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[rwac]

Quote

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study suggests people who had certain kinds of dental X-rays in the past may be at an increased risk for meningioma, the most commonly diagnosed brain tumor in the U.S.

The findings cannot prove that radiation from the imaging caused the tumors, and the results are based on people who were likely exposed to higher levels of radiation during dental X-rays than most are today.
...
For her study, Claus' team recruited 1,433 people diagnosed with intracranial meningioma -- a tumor that forms in the tissues lining the brain -- between May 2006 and April 2011. All of the participants were diagnosed when they were between 20 and 79 years old and they were all from Connecticut, Massachusetts, North Carolina or the Houston or San Francisco Bay areas.
...
The researchers found that those diagnosed with meningiomas were more than twice as likely as the comparison group to report ever having had bitewing images taken.

Oops, forgot link: http://www.ibtimes.c...brain-tumor.htm

Edited by rwac, 10 April 2012 - 04:55 PM.

[Mind]

One supposed flaw in this study is that it is based on self-reporting (memory) of having bitewing images taken. However, I don't think this would introduce significant error since it is not a difficult thing to remember, except for perhaps the oldest in the study, who might suffer from some mental decline.

I had these x-rays a few times when I was younger. I couldn't say how many....5...maybe up to 10 times. Since I was quite inquisitive even while I was younger, I always asked what the dentists were seeing in the x-rays. They would say "look at this cavity here". To tell you the truth, I never saw anything that looked out of the ordinary, but I did have some tooth pain from time to time which seemed to be taken care of by drilling and amalgam. Interesting story: a work colleague of mine went to a dentist office, got the x-rays, the dentist said she had like 4 or 5 cavities and they needed to be drilled and filled. She didn't see anything in the x-rays (like me when I was younger), so she went to a different office and they said she didn't have any cavities. They cleaned her teeth, normal check-up, and she was fine.

The last time my wife got x-rays she asked them if the x-rays were safe. They said yes. She asked "if they are safe, why do you make me wear a lead vest?" They couldn't offer a coherent answer.