7 Quality Checks Before Uploading Your Dental X-ray

Most clinics store X-rays digitally and can give you a copy, for example as a JPEG or PNG export. An original file keeps detail that a photo of a screen loses. If you are moving to a new dentist, the ADA's patient guidance notes that they may be able to use your previous images rather than taking new ones — so asking for copies is worthwhile anyway.

Avoid sending the file through messaging apps that compress images; download it, or send it “as a document” where the app allows.

Make sure the file is a dental X-ray (not a photo of your teeth or a scan of a report) and note what type it is: panoramic, bitewing or periapical. Our guide to the different dental X-ray types can help.

Check the date. Teeth and gums change, and treatment you have had since — a filling, an extraction, a crown — will not appear on an older image. If the X-ray is more than a year or two old, mention that wherever you share it.

For a panoramic X-ray, both jaws should be visible from the last tooth on the left to the last tooth on the right, including the roots. Screenshots and crops often cut off the edges, which is exactly where wisdom teeth and back teeth sit. Upload the whole image rather than a zoomed-in part.

Sometimes the only copy is on a monitor or a printed film. If so:

• Hold the phone parallel to the screen or film, not at an angle, so teeth are not stretched or squashed.
• Turn off the flash and avoid lamps or windows that reflect on the surface.
• For a film, place it against an evenly lit background, such as a bright screen showing a white page.
• Fill the frame with the X-ray, keep the phone steady and tap to focus.

Before uploading, zoom in on a few teeth. Edges of fillings and roots should look crisp, not smeared. Very dark or washed-out areas hide detail. If the original X-ray itself looks blurred — for example because of movement during the scan — say so; a review of panoramic positioning errors shows how movement and head position can blur parts of the image or create shadows that look like problems. Our guide to what a panoramic X-ray can and can’t show describes these artefacts.

Upload the image as you received it. Mirroring or rotating it can swap left and right, which changes tooth numbers. Filters, contrast boosts and “AI enhance” features can invent or erase detail. If the image is sideways, that is fine — a dentist or the software can deal with it, but not with an image that has been altered.

Dental X-rays often carry your name, date of birth, the clinic's name or a patient number printed on the image. Health information is a special category of personal data under laws such as the EU GDPR and Türkiye's Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK), with stricter rules for how it can be processed.

• Read the privacy notice of the service and check who your images will be shared with.
• Decide whether you are comfortable with the visible details; if a service asks you not to include them, cover them without hiding any teeth.
• Only upload your own images, or those of someone you are legally allowed to act for.