How to Get Copies of Your Dental X-Rays
Last updated 2026-08-10
X-rays are the part of your dental record people get stuck on. The chart notes arrive, the images do not — and you find out in a new dentist's chair, right before they retake pictures you already had. Here is why that happens and how to get the actual image files.
The short version: your radiographs are part of your record and you can request copies. But no software will fetch them for you — a person at the office that took them has to export and send the files. So ask for them by name, and give them somewhere big enough to send.
Why imaging is different from the rest of your chart
Your treatment history is text in a database. Your x-rays are image files sitting inside imaging software on the computers at the office that took them — Dexis, Romexis, CS Imaging, whatever that practice happens to run. No dental system publishes those pixels to another practice. There is no shared network behind the scenes, and no request anyone can make that pulls them automatically.
That single fact explains almost every frustrating conversation about dental x-rays. When an office says the images "can't be sent", it very rarely means they are refusing — it means exporting them is a task somebody has to sit down and do, and it is nobody's job until you ask.
What to actually ask for
Be specific, because "send me my records" gets you chart notes. Ask for:
- All radiographs — bitewings, periapicals, and any full-mouth series.
- Panoramic images, if you have ever had one taken.
- Any CBCT or 3D scan, named explicitly — it is stored differently from everything else and is the one most often left out.
- The dates they were taken, so a new dentist knows what is current.
- Standard image files (JPEG or PNG for flat images, DICOM for a 3D volume) rather than a proprietary viewer nobody else can open.
The one-button way
A Dental Passport sends the request for you, with the imaging box already ticked and an upload link the office can use without creating an account.
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Ask the office that took them
Imaging only ever leaves the office that holds it. If several practices took images over the years, each one has its own set — ask them separately.
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Name the images explicitly
Ask for "all radiographs and imaging, including any panoramic or CBCT". A request for "my records" is frequently answered with chart notes only.
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Give them somewhere big enough to send it
The request includes a secure upload link that accepts a full CBCT volume, so the office is not trying to squeeze a gigabyte through email.
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Keep them where you can forward them
Images land in your passport at full size. The next specialist who needs the scan gets it from you in a minute, instead of another month-long chase.
Create a free passport and request your x-rays
Free for patients. Images are stored encrypted, and no dental office sees them unless you share them.
The CBCT problem
If you have had an implant planned, a wisdom tooth assessed, or an airway looked at, there is probably a CBCT scan with your name on it. These are the most valuable images you own and the hardest to move: a single volume runs from a few hundred megabytes to a couple of gigabytes. Email rejects it. Consumer file sharing is usually where the office gives up.
It is worth the effort, because a CBCT is expensive, it is a meaningful dose of radiation, and it stays clinically useful far longer than a bitewing. Getting one copy into your own hands means the next specialist who needs it — an oral surgeon, an orthodontist, someone giving a second opinion — gets it from you the same day.
"Can't they just take new ones?"
They can, and occasionally they should — if the old images are genuinely too old to diagnose from, retaking is the right clinical call. But defaulting to it costs you three things: the radiation, the money, and the comparison.
That last one is the one patients underrate. A dentist looking at this year's image alone sees a shadow and has to decide what it means. A dentist looking at this year's next to last year's can see whether it grew. Prior images are not just paperwork — they are the only evidence of what your mouth looked like before, and nobody can recreate them later.
Once you have them
Keep the files somewhere you can actually send from. Images that live as an email attachment from 2023 are effectively gone by the time you need them. In a passport they stay at full size, they travel to whoever you choose, and you can see every time someone opened them.
Common questions
Am I entitled to a copy of my dental x-rays?
Yes. Radiographs are part of the dental record a provider holds about you, so the HIPAA Right of Access covers them the same way it covers chart notes. The office keeps its originals and sends you copies. You do not have to explain why you want them, and an unpaid treatment balance is not a lawful reason to withhold them.
Why does my dentist say the x-rays cannot be sent?
Usually it means the images live inside imaging software on the office computers, and nobody at the front desk has done the export before. It is a workflow problem, not a legal one. Asking specifically for exported image files, and giving the office somewhere to upload them, is what turns a "we cannot" into files arriving.
Can my new dentist just pull my old x-rays electronically?
No, and this surprises people. No dental practice-management or imaging system exposes the actual image data to another practice through an interface. There is no network your dentists share. Someone at the office holding the images has to send the files, which is why the request needs to go to them directly.
How do I send a CBCT or 3D scan? They are enormous.
A full CBCT volume is routinely hundreds of megabytes to a couple of gigabytes, which email rejects outright. The request we send includes a secure upload link that takes the whole volume, and the scan is stored in your passport at full size so you can forward it to a specialist later without asking the original office twice.
How old can x-rays be and still be useful?
It depends what they are for. Bitewings for decay are usually considered current for about six to twelve months, panoramic images and CBCT scans stay useful much longer for anatomy and implant planning, and any prior image at all is valuable as a comparison — it shows whether something has changed. Even "old" images are worth having, because they are the only record of what your mouth looked like before.
What if I just let the new office take new x-rays?
You can, and sometimes that is the right call clinically. But it is repeat radiation exposure and often a repeat cost, for images that already exist. It also throws away the comparison: a dentist who can see last year’s image next to today’s can tell the difference between a spot that is stable and one that is growing.
Create your free Dental Passport
This page explains a patient right under U.S. federal law in general terms. It is information, not legal advice, and state law can add protections on top of it.