At the moment the options are limited for dentists and patients, so this news is not very comforting. X-rays are weaker than they used to be but that still may be too much.
The study in the US journal Cancer showed people diagnosed with meningioma who reported having a yearly bitewing exam were 1.4 times to 1.9 times as likely as a healthy control group to have developed such tumors.
A bitewing exam involves an X-ray film being held in place by a tab between the teeth.
Also, people who reported getting a yearly panorex exam -- in which an X-ray is taken outside the mouth and shows all the teeth on one film -- were 2.7 to three times more likely to develop cancer, said the study.