Interpreting dental radiographs

Naomi Hoyer, DVM, DAVDC, an associate professor of dentistry and oral surgery at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, addressed oral tumor cases in a continuing education (CE) lecture, as part of a series of dentistry sessions, at the 2026 Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX) in Orlando, Florida, hosted by the North American Veterinary Community. In an interview with dvm360 at VMX, Hoyer discussed a recommended strategy for identifying interpreting intraoral radiographs in dentistry cases.

The following is a transcript of the video, lightly edited for clarity:

dvm360: What is a useful strategy for intraoral radiographic interpretation in a case-based format?

Naomi Hoyer, DVM, DAVDC: I think that the best strategy for interpreting dentistry cases is just to think of every tooth as your patient. So if you're sitting down with a dog that has a facial swelling, for example, and you are looking at X-rays and you're trying to imagine which tooth it is—let's say it's not an obviously broken tooth—you're trying to figure out which tooth it is that's causing the problem. Look at every single tooth in the X-rays as if they're your patient, and then try to determine which is the one that's most likely associated with these clinical signs.

View more insights from Naomi Hoyer, DVM, DAVDC:

• Following a diagnostic plan for oral tumors
• Reading the clinical signs of stomatitis
• Providing stomatitis care for companion animals
• Examining dental radiographs
• Using a full set of dental radiology images

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