Dan W
Member
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2013
- Messages
- 1,528
Fun quotes from Peat about dental x-rays:
T said:[question about how to navigate a situation where a dentist feels x-rays are pretty much "necessary"]
Ray Peat said:The legal situation “forces” dentists not to rely on their judgment. Mexican dentists, in a different economy, are able to rely on their judgment, and I have known a couple dentists there who demonstrated their ability to skeptics, doing the work first, then making x-rays to show that their eyes and brains had done the job perfectly.
T said:[question about light therapy immediately following x-rays]
Ray Peat said:Dentists have always described the x-ray exposure as “very small,” but I have never known one who in fact knew how much radiation he was exposing his patients to. In the 1980s I went to a US dentist who didn’t object at all when I said I didn’t want x-rays. His left index finger was missing, so I knew why his attitude was different. In the ‘60s and ‘70s there was an epidemic of index finger cancer among US dentists, because it had been common for them to hold the x-ray film in the patient’s mouth while making the exposure. A study in Seattle a few years ago found that, even with heavy shielding of the whole body, a single full mouth set of x-rays caused pregnant women to deliver underdeveloped babies. For over twenty years doctors defended x-raying pregnant women despite the evidence that it caused leukemia and other childhood cancers. As the practice was discarded, the incidence of childhood cancer decreased. Starting in the 1950s, the US government had a huge campaign to justify their bomb program by convincing the public that ionizing radiation was very safe (Project Sunshine). A typical project the government supported was the Monsanto Research Corporation’s proposal for a plutonium-powered coffee pot that would boil water for 100 years without refueling. Our “radiation culture” is crazy.
T said:[I mentioned how dentists compare x-rays to the sun (like, you would get more radiation from the sun), how dentists say their x-rays are "lower radiation" than they used to be, they're better and digital, etc., how dental hygienists don't go running out of the room now, etc.]
Ray Peat said:The comparison to the sun really is simply fraudulent. The only digital thing about the new method is the way the image is recorded and displayed, making the process very quick and much cheaper for the dentist, which is why they like them. But it’s the same old ionizing radiation. Hygienists who act like that are just stupid.
T said:[I shared this link and asked his viewpoint - This is the kind of thing some dentists share if asked about the safety of x-rays: http://www.drplitt.com/dental-x-ray-safety/]
Ray Peat said:I would say that page was written by a moron. Otherwise, I would have to say that it was written and posted by dishonest people.