Radiograph is the formal word for what most families simply call an X-ray.

In kid words

"A radiograph is just the dentist word for the special picture we take that shows what's happening under your gums and inside your teeth." Your child only needs to know it is a picture, not a poke or a shot, and that we only take one when we actually need to see something a regular look cannot show.

The parent version

Radiograph is the clinical term for what is commonly called an X-ray image, a picture that shows structures a dentist cannot see just by looking in the mouth, including tooth roots, the bone underneath, the spaces between teeth and teeth that have not yet come in. A bitewing is one familiar type of radiograph, aimed at the back teeth biting together, though other types exist to capture other parts of the mouth.

Digital X-rays are part of care at both offices, taken only when there is a genuine need rather than as a routine step at every visit. Whether a radiograph is called for at a given visit, and what it would show for your own child, is a decision made together with your pediatric dentist.

Where you might hear it at our office

Radiograph is the word behind the small pictures that occasionally come up during a cleaning and exam, reached for only when there is a genuine reason to look past what the eye can see. A comprehensive exam and growth check answer most questions on their own, so a radiograph enters the visit only when more detail is actually needed.

If another word from today's visit is still a mystery, the rest of the Kids' Dental Dictionary is right here.

Related words

Words that often come up alongside radiograph: bitewing, interproximal, eruption.