When visiting the office of the dentist near me, finding forms to fill to ensure the medications they provide won't interact with each other is standard. However, your dentist or other medical professionals must have information about the medicines you take besides your entire medical history to make sure they make informed decisions.
As a patient, you might express concern about undergoing an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) procedure if you have metal implants or how the MRI machine may affect them. Fortunately, dental implants and MRI scans are a safe combination.
Producing strong magnetic fields in a specific area to penetrate tissues is the job of an MRI machine for the computer to create images of your brain, heart, and various other locations. MRIs help examine different soft tissue and organs of your body, and your doctor might recommend a scan when looking for a tumor, taking your heart's chambers health, or assessing damage from a stroke. The benefits of this non-invasive imaging with MRI scanning do not expose you to the radiation associated with CAT scans and x-rays.
If you have cavities that are challenging to fix with dental fillings encasing the tooth with a dental crown is often an alternative. Various materials help make dental crowns, including metals, ceramic, porcelain fused to metal and resin. The prices for dental crowns often determine which specific variety a patient chooses. Unfortunately, if you have metal crowns, you might express concerns about the interaction of the restoration with an MRI.
Over the past few decades, MRI or magnetic resonance imaging has become a medical diagnostic imaging tool used by many professionals. However, as MRI uses powerful magnetic fields when creating images of inside the body, concerns have been raised about the safety of metal objects like crowns, stents, fillings, et cetera. Fortunately, a few different elements determine whether dental crowns and MRI scans are suitable or not.
Magnets do not attract any type of metal but do attract some types. Therefore if you have metal crowns of ferromagnetic metals including iron, cobalt, nickel, and stainless steel included in some dental restorations, you would be justified to express concern before undergoing an MRI.
Fortunately, dental crowns made from porcelain, gold, or composite resin do not cause any risks for an MRI. However, you can help yourself by consulting your dentist before having an MRI if you have crowns on your teeth. How long your tooth has been restored might also provide clues to the restoration material. In recent times dentists or reducing products that might interfere with MRI machines.
An MRI procedure can impact the crown's safety and effectiveness if you have metal crowns. Projectile accidents with dental crowns and MRIs are the most frightening. Fortunately, they are also not common.
A reality largely unknown is that oxygen tanks, IV poles, stretchers, and wheelchairs are not permitted in MRI machine rooms because the machine's magnetic fields are powerful enough to drag them through at high speeds. It is why professionals in the room recommend patients from metal jewelry. If magnetic materials are present in a dental crown, the risks of the restoration being pulled off the tooth remain. You might experience pain and danger when undergoing an MRI if you have tooth restorations like metal dental crowns in Pflugerville.
Your metal crown might become damaged even if it isn't pulled off. The magnetic field of the MRI interacts with the metal causing it to vibrate. The vibration can dislodge, bend, and break the dental restoration.
Thermal Burns
You might risk thermal burns even if the magnet doesn't attract a specific metal. Absorbing the energy created by the magnetic field is a feature of some metals. The energy can sufficiently heat the metal to cause burns to the soft tissue in your mouth.
Artifacts
While artifacts are not harmful, they can cause problems during an interaction of the MRI with crowns. Artifacts are alternatively called the term to describe distortion of the metal to obscure the image produced by the MRI. As a result, the picture shows up blurred areas or dark smudges on the image. Fudged photographs make it challenging but not impossible to arrive at a medical diagnosis.
You might find it challenging to predict whether you might need an MRI later. However, you can avoid potential issues with MRI scans if your doctor recommends it by keeping track of your dental procedures and requesting information on what materials the dentist in Pflugerville used when providing restorations like dental crowns. You must also select materials like ceramic, porcelain, or composites for future dental work and communicate with your doctor and MRI technician about any dental work that might cause concerns.
Peak Dental — Pflugerville always recommends you have dental restorations that won't interact with MRIs. If you need to fix a decayed tooth unsuitable for dental fillings with a dental crown, help yourself by requesting materials from this practice that won't interact with MRI scans if you ever need one later.
