6 Reasons Why Dental Photography is Important in your Practice
With the digital age, photography has paved the way to a lot of possibilities with regard to the discovery of perspectives in both art and science. This includes the field of dentistry. Beyond x-rays and intra-oral camera image, high-resolution dental photography has become an essential part of dentistry. In this blog, we will enumerate six major reasons why digital dental photography is important in your practice and should be done before, during and/or after surgery.
Documentation
Dental photography's primary goal is to document. Documentation is vital most especially in diagnosis. Proper documentation provides a clear look of the patient’s dentition, for convenient review. At minimum pre-operative images should be taken but during and after photos can also greatly assist to reveal evidence of previous malpractice or appropriate treatment, should you ever need them for dento-legal investigation purposes then you will be covered.
Communication
The communication aspect of dental photography concerns both the patient, the dentist, and the laboratory. The aim is better understanding among them. First, dental photography provides a visual explanation from the dentist to the patient of the diagnosis, as well as a guide to demonstrate what surgery procedure will be done. It is important that the patient understands what’s happening and what will be done to them to make them trust the dentist. Second, laboratories may need the help of digital photographs to better understand what is needed for the case or to colour match a shade.
Self-education
They say experience is our best teacher. Being able to document each stage of the procedure will enable self-checking for quality control. It allows dentists to critique themselves with the aim of self-improvement. Also, dentists may opt to share the dental photographs to colleagues to receive additional critiques and recommendations.
Marketing
Before-and-after photos are effective materials for promotion of dental services. With dental photography, actual photographs of case studies will be made useful for marketing purposes as opposed to getting stock images. A great portfolio of work, through dental photography, boosts the practitioner’s credibility.
Instruction
High resolution dental photography of the procedure will help practitioners educate colleagues and students. More than text, clear photographs are strong visual aids for describing the case, the diagnosis and the procedure.
Referrals
There are instances where a patient may be referred to a different doctor for various reasons such as full capacity of clinic, or specialisation. Having dental photographs helps in referrals. Dentists will be able to explain the case of the patient without requiring the appearance of the patient, as such assessment may take time.
With all these important reasons why dental photography is important to surgery, it is mandatory to know how to properly take digital dental photographs. If you need guidance, we have dental photography courses available to educate you. We offer a Certificate of Dento-Facial Photography Course to help you produce world-class clinical photographs. We also have a large range of dental photography supplies available for your practice.
If you need further assistance or are looking for dental photography supplies, feel free to reach out to us.
