Who owns the a patients dental xray? The patient or the dentist? Our dentist !
Question:
Who owns the a patients dental xray? The patient or the dentist? Our dentist wants to charge me $50/copy.?
I go to the dentist, they xray me, I pay $150 for panoramic xrays. I want to get my dental records and they want me to pay $50. According to the dentist, they OWN the xrays. But I paid for them ?!
Answers:
As a practicing dentist I can tell you that the dentist does in fact "own" your x-rays. What you paid for was to have the x-rays taken and processed and for the dentist to "read" the x-rays. We are required by law to keep a patients original dental x-rays on file in our office just as you would the patients dental records even if the patient switches to another dentist. You are allowed to request a copy of your records and x-rays at your own expense to cover all of the duplication charges, but the dentist is required to keep all originals by law.