Why does my cat need x-rays?

X-rays help us to better diagnose what's going on, not only in the mouth but, more importantly, under the gums where we can't see. For example, you might have a diseased tooth that looks like there's some tartar on the outside but the crown looks pretty solid and the tooth is not loose, but you do an x-ray and maybe you uncover that one of those roots has a tremendous amount of bone loss around it. Well, that tooth at that point is usually not a viable tooth so it would need to be extracted. Without x-rays, you would never have a way to know that.