How much radiation is there in a digital mammogram? the clinic keeps telling me it's like a plane flight, but i don't believe them.

Not much: The effective dose of radiation in a single digital mammogram is about 0.3 msv. This is about the equivalent of the cumulative radiation dose of 3 chest xrays. This is very small, and the benefit of screening mammography outweighs the risk of radiation exposure. The annual background radiation effective dose that we are exposed to is about 3 msv, which likely poses no increased cancer risk.

Why not?: Your question is interesting. There is no "standard" radiation dose for an airline flight, the exposure is based on several factors (altitude, duration of flight, etc.). The radiation exposure from digital mammography is less than conventional, and as accurate. You get no useful information from a plane flight; mammography provides information that could save your life. Why so distrustful?

True: They are correct. Mammograms do result in an overall increased risk of developing breast cancer, but the upside is you are more likely to diagnose and treat that breast cancer with the mammograms.

Radiation: Mammograms require very small doses of radiation. The risk of harm from this radiation exposure is extremely low, but repeated x-rays have the potential to cause cancer. The benefits of mammography, however, nearly always outweigh the potential harm from the radiation exposure. Digital mammograms use slightly less radiation than conventional.