What Is a Digital Mammogram and How Does It Compare to a Conventional Mammogram?

— -- Question: What is a digital mammogram and how does it compare to a conventional mammogram?

Answer: A digital mammogram is kind of like your digital camera, the difference between the old film of cameras and a digital camera. So the difference is that we can see the image right away rather than having a piece of film that we have to run through a processor to look at and just like your digital camera we can look at the digital image on a screen and change how light or dark it is, where as a film you can't really change that, you have what you have. So that's the main differences. Digital mammograms tend to be higher in contrast. We know that digital mammograms are better for women who have dense breast tissue, are under the age of 50, or are pre-menopausal. Digital mammography is a little bit more sensitive than film-screen mammography. So if that's available, then digital mammography may be better for you. If it's not available, please still get your regular mammogram. We know that film-screen mammography works to reduce breast cancer mortality.

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