Top-Notch Dental Technology in Winston Salem

Providing exceptional dentistry for patients in the Winston-Salem community

For decades, dentists relied on film x-rays to observe what was happening inside a tooth. Today, remarkable advances in dental technology have eliminated the need for film and replaced it with digital x-rays that allow us to produce images faster and with far more detail than film x-rays.

At the dental office of Jeffrey J. Tibbs, we offer all the comprehensive dental services your family needs to enjoy healthy smiles. Your semi-annual exams and teeth cleanings are a critical part of your overall oral healthcare, so we want to be as thorough as possible to stay a step ahead of problems. 

We choose to invest in modern technology like digital x-rays in Winston-Salem, which make diagnosing dental conditions faster, safer, more comfortable, and more accurate than ever before.

Digital dental x-rays are a crucial component of a well-rounded approach to dentistry. If you need to schedule a dental appointment with our treatment team, please call us today at (336) 765-7477.

No matter how well you take care of your teeth on your own, there are some services only a dentist can offer. Because it’s impossible to manage 100% of your oral healthcare by yourself, you need to visit a dentist for exams and cleanings regularly. 

One of the most valuable treatments your dentist’s office provides is access to digital dental x-rays. 

When you schedule a routine, six-month dental exam with us, we will always evaluate your teeth and determine if you need new x-rays at that time. Most patients need bitewing dental x-rays once per year, which equates to every other dental appointment. If Dr. Tibbs feels that you need dental imaging done more or less frequently than every twelve months, we can adjust your treatment plan as needed. 

Why are dental x-rays so essential? Because they detect your dental decay early on—before it’s visible to the naked eye, and usually before you’re even symptomatic. 

This early detection means that our Winston-Salem dentist, Dr. Tibbs, can catch your cavities when they’re small, painless, and less expensive to treat. It’s easy and relatively fast to fill a minor cavity that’s just starting to develop. It’s much more challenging to treat a cavity that’s been spreading for years.

Without digital dental x-rays, we wouldn’t know about your cavities until they started causing you enough pain that you scheduled a dental appointment with us—and by that time, there’s a good chance you would need a tooth crown or even a root canal to treat the problem. 

Dental x-rays are the key that unlocks the door that leads to healthier smiles. While there are many reasons to visit our treatment team at the dental office of Jeffrey J. Tibbs, getting an updated set of bitewing x-rays is one of the most important. If you need to schedule your next six-month dental exam with us, please contact us by clicking here. 

Rounding Out Your Dental Treatment

As we discussed above, digital x-rays are one of several critical components of dental visits. When you visit us for dental x-rays in Winston-Salem, we use those x-rays to guide the rest of your dental treatment. 

X-ray images allows our dentist to see beyond the surface of your smile and evaluate the insides your teeth and under your gums. In addition to showing us any developed cavities, the imaging will also draw our eyes to “pre-cavity” areas or any spots in your mouth that show potential for problems. 

Our hygienists and Dr. Tibbs will examine your x-rays for any red flags or indicators of conditions like: 

• Decay
• Impacted teeth
• Oral cancer
• Tooth infection
• Gum disease

This in-depth knowledge helps Dr. Tibbs to take a closer look at individual teeth or to be extra gentle around vulnerable areas while performing your teeth cleaning. 

Additionally, if your dental x-rays indicate decay or inflamed gums, we know that we need to spend extra time during your dental appointment talking about proper brushing and flossing techniques. 

You may not realize it, but radiation is everywhere in our environment—from our soil and water to the air we breathe. Each of us gets exposed to minimal radiation from sunlight and the outside elements every day, and these small amounts of exposure are generally not considered harmful to our health. 

Still, we understand that many people today have concerns about exposure to radiation while getting dental x-rays taken. 

Modern dentists and scientists have spent considerable time studying the output of radiation caused by a standard round of dental x-rays. A set of bitewing x-rays, which are the standard four x-rays obtained during your six-month checkups, exposes you to approximately the same amount of radiation as a two-hour airplane ride or one day of “standard” living among environmental radiation. In other words, getting your annual dental x-rays is no more dangerous than living one day walking around outside, exposed to the sun. 

Modern, state-of-the-art digital x-rays are proven to reduce your exposure by as much as 90 percent compared to x-rays taken with film. You will always wear a lead apron to protect the rest of your body from unnecessary radiation, and your x-rays will be over before you know it. When you need dental x-rays in Winston-Salem, you can rest assured that your treatment is as safe as it can be! 

The Advantages of Digital X-Rays in Winston Salem

We chose to invest in digital x-ray technology because of the many benefits it offers to our patients. Some of the most significant advantages of digital x-rays include:

• Accurate, high-resolution images: Clear images allow us to quickly detect conditions like decay and dental infection early, long before we would see them with a visual exam or on a film x-ray. Detecting and treating problems when they are small helps you avoid the inconvenience and expense of complicated issues in the future
• Comfortable flat sensors: These sensors capture a digital image and send it directly to our computer, which is a vast improvement over the bulky, cumbersome x-ray film of past years.
• Valuable educational tool: Digital x-rays allow our dentist to share your images with you immediately on a chairside monitor. Dr. Tibbs can manipulate the image by zooming in, rotating it, and making it larger or smaller so you can easily see what’s going on beneath the surface and why we recommend specific treatments
• Immediate access: Since your x-rays are stored securely on our in-house system, we can always access them quickly to send them to a specialist or insurance company

At the dental office of Jeffrey J. Tibbs, DDS, we rely on smart technology like digital dental x-rays so we can provide the updated, high-quality treatment you deserve. Today, we use technology in many areas of our practice; if you haven’t visited a dental office in a while, you owe it to yourself to see how we can make your appointments more comfortable and productive.

Please call our Winston-Salem dental office at (336) 765-7477 to speak with a member of our treatment team. We will be happy to schedule your next dental appointment so you can see how easy it can be to achieve excellent oral health!