She Changed Dentists and Was Told the X-Rays Were Not Hers

Quick answer: You are entitled to a copy of your own medical and dental records, including x-rays. A practice may keep the originals and may charge a reasonable fee for copying, and it should not refuse. Getting them matters clinically as well as administratively.

The call

She had asked twice by phone and been told, both times, that the x-rays belonged to the practice.

Yael, 38, from Nofei Aviv, was moving to us after fifteen years elsewhere — no dispute, no complaint, simply a house move that had made the old practice inconvenient.

The statement she had been given is half right and half wrong, and the half that is wrong is the half that matters.

What we found

Where the law stands. Under Israel's Patients' Rights Law, a patient is entitled to receive medical information from their record. The physical film or the digital file may belong to the practice that made it; the information in it is the patient's, and a copy must be provided. A practice may charge a reasonable fee for copying and may take a short period to comply.

"The x-rays belong to us" is therefore true of the original and irrelevant to the request. She had asked for a copy.

Why it mattered clinically, which is the part that gets lost in the administrative argument:

Comparison is diagnosis. A single bitewing shows a shadow. Two bitewings four years apart show whether that shadow is growing. Without the earlier film, every finding is undated, and a stable lesion that has not changed in a decade looks identical to one that appeared last year.

Bone levels. Periodontal assessment depends heavily on rate of change. Her current films showed moderate bone loss. Whether that had developed over twenty years or over three is the difference between routine maintenance and urgent intensive treatment.

Root canal history. She had two root-treated teeth. Knowing when they were done, and what the follow-up films showed, determines whether a lesion is healing slowly or failing.

Radiation. Retaking a full series that already exists is an avoidable exposure. Small, and avoidable is avoidable.

Materials and history. What was used, what has been retreated, what has failed before.

What we did

Wrote the request properly, which is what she had not been able to do by phone.

A written request, signed by her, specifying: all radiographs including dates, clinical notes, treatment history, and any photographs. Sent by email with a request for acknowledgement, and a note offering to pay any reasonable copying fee.

Requests in writing, naming what is wanted and citing the entitlement, are processed. Phone requests to a receptionist are frequently not, and that is usually a matter of nobody knowing the procedure rather than obstruction.

The records arrived within three weeks — a full set of digital x-rays going back eleven years, and clinical notes.

They changed the assessment materially. Comparing her current bitewings against films from 2019 and 2015 showed two lesions that had been present and unchanged for nine years — arrested, not active, and not needing treatment. On the current films alone, both would reasonably have been restored.

Her bone levels turned out to have been stable for six years, which reclassified her from active periodontitis needing intensive treatment to a stable maintenance case.

Two fillings avoided and a course of treatment avoided, on the strength of an administrative request.

The outcome

She is a maintenance patient on six-monthly recalls.

The wider habit worth adopting: she now keeps her own copy. At the end of each year she asks for her x-rays and notes to be emailed to her, and keeps them in a folder. That takes five minutes and means she never has to make this request again — which matters particularly for a population that moves practices, moves countries, and travels.

What to do if this happens to you

1. Request in writing, signed, listing exactly what you want — x-rays with dates, notes, treatment history, photographs.
2. Expect to pay a reasonable copying fee, and offer to.
3. Do not accept "the x-rays are ours" as a refusal. The original may be theirs; the copy is your entitlement.
4. Ask for digital files, which are easier to transfer and to keep.
5. Keep your own copy, updated yearly. It takes minutes.
6. Give the new practice the records before your first appointment, not after, so the examination is informed by them.

Moving practices? Ask Ramat Beit Shemesh Urgent Dental Care how to request your records — bring them to your first visit. 055-985-8845 · WhatsApp https://wa.me/972559858845 · Harav Kook 28/1, Beit Shemesh

This is a composite clinical story. It reflects a presentation we see regularly in Beit Shemesh and Ramat Beit Shemesh; the name and details are illustrative and are not those of a real patient.