Dental photographs are a very common and beneficial resource for clinics. On the one hand, they allow the dentist to document their work and communicate with the laboratory, other colleagues, or patients, providing extra value in the diagnosis and monitoring of treatments. And they are essential as reference resources at conferences and talks. On the other hand, they are almost essential in the advertising of the dental clinic, whether on the Internet, on posters, or in magazines.
Thanks to the technological advances of cameras or smartphones, achieving high-quality dental photographs is within everyone's reach. Also, taking into account some tips and techniques that we will review in this article, the images you capture will be even more effective.
Dental photography for clinical purposes.
Photographs can be extraoral and intraoral, and different considerations must be taken when taking them:
Extraoral photographs
The extraoral images should be taken as a portrait, so that the patient will smile naturally and take photos from the front, side, and at a 45-degree angle.
Thanks to them, experts can see if the type of bite affects the morphology of the face. It is important that the whole face or a large part of it appear in the photo since the objective is to capture the facial features and characteristics together with the patient's smile so that facial change can be assessed as a whole once the treatment. Some of the specialties in which they are used more are in orthodontics, complete rehabilitation, and implantology.
These types of photographs do not require as complex a technique as intraoral ones, since they do not need specific tools to take them. With a camera or even a smartphone, which has a camera with good performance, it will be enough.
Intraoral photographs
In intraoral photographs, only the oral cavity is visible without showing the lips. It is a type of image used in all dental specialties, both at the beginning of treatment, as in the intermediate steps, and to record the final result. In addition, it serves as a complement to other types of imaging studies, such as the 3D scanners performed by the Veraview X800.
To achieve clear images, with as little noise as possible and with true-to-life colors, it is necessary to have a camera with a flash that allows enlargements to be made while maintaining image quality. The use of a medium telephoto lens closed apertures (from f / 8), and the lowest possible ISO is recommended. A good trick to make the photograph look good when done frontally is to focus on the lateral incisors or canines.
On some occasions, especially when the attention of the image is focused on the upper or lower teeth, it is interesting to use a sterilized black plastic that covers the tongue and the rest of the oral cavity. Almost as if it were a photo studio background.
Other dental tools such as separators or cheek retractors are very helpful to be able to take intraoral photographs.
Dental photography for marketing
Another purpose of dental photography is its use for advertising campaigns. The image of a perfect smile is still a great claim to achieve patients, and will always give more confidence if it is done in the clinic itself, instead of buying it from an image bank.
Dental photographs can also nourish your social networks with content, although, depending on the social network in which you are going to publish them, they will have to have some characteristics of others. In the case of LinkedIn, which is a professional platform, dental photographs can be used to represent the step-by-step of a treatment that allows you to position yourself among your professional colleagues. However, on Instagram, you will have to publish images more aimed at attracting the attention of customers, showing for example that you perform implants or orthodontics very little visible.
When these photographs are taken for advertising purposes, it is common to use Photoshop to remove spots or correct the light, something that should never be done when the image is used for medical purposes.