Every diagnostic image carries within it the silent influence of what it is asked to see through. A new study published in Nature reminds clinicians that the dental crowns they place today will shape the legibility of every scan taken afterward — that zirconia and cobalt-chromium, prized for their strength and beauty, cast the longest shadows in cone-beam CT imaging, while humbler resin leaves the picture nearly undisturbed. This is not merely a technical finding but a quiet invitation to consider how the materials of medicine become part of the story medicine must later read.