If you’re going on a trip this summer, you’re giving yourself an excellent opportunity to experience something new or just take a load off. However, you also put yourself at risk for dental emergencies—serious oral health problems that require immediate professional attention.

If you want to prevent dental emergencies from cropping up, there are a few things you can do to protect yourself. Here are some examples.

If you’ve been to a dental exam any time in the last few decades, you’re probably familiar with dental X-rays and how they’re used. Imaging technology just gets more and more advanced over time, which gives your dentist even more options to diagnose increasingly complicated issues.

However, if you’re someone who is a little bit put off by the idea of X-rays, you may wonder what it is that makes them absolutely necessary. Here’s why it’s so important for your dentist to be able to see what’s going on inside your teeth.