In a method and an apparatus for producing X-ray tomograms of the jaw and skull of a patient, a detector arrangement having at least one x-ray detector is provided. The radiation-sensitive area of the detector is a sub-area of the total detector area required for the subject exposure. The image exposure ensues in a number of chronologically separate sections in which, following a first sub-exposure, the detector arrangement is displaced along the longitudinal axis and/or the transverse axis of the detector surface and the diaphragm aperture of the primary diaphragm associated with the x-ray source is simultaneously correspondingly adapted so that the position of the x-ray beam is shifted so that it still strikes the detector appropriately after the detector is displaced.