previously on chair side live I discussed important reasons to implement dental
photography into your practice moving forward with that theme today I'd like to review some
of the most common errors that I see doctors and staff making with chair sight photography and give
some helpful hints on how to minimize or avoid struggling with acquiring professional photos
and help it become an easy streamlined process there are so many videos tutorials articles and
opinions on the topic of dental photography so I'm going to focus this presentation on
the basic fundamentals to allow you the viewer to modify them to fit your own practice needs before
even picking up the camera and starting to shoot photos it is important to first position your
patient in a manner that will assist everyone involved in acquiring the correct angulation
and the proper photo not only does this set us up for success but it allows the patient
to prepare for the session and to become involved instead of asking your patient to turn their head
towards you position the patient to take an image straight on with their body position in
alignment with their head preventing unnatural stretching or angling to compensate make micro
adjustments to the patient's head positioning by tweaking the angles tilting the chin up and
down and straightening the head to minimize the need to adjust photos later if the head is still
positioned on the headrest slight adjustments to the chair allowing the patient to rest the head
and make a steady base is advisable for full face and profile photographs plan a neutral colored
spot near a wall where the patient can stand and face their body and head in alignment at
all angles needed for the shots always ask your patient to face their entire body the direction
that you want the head to be pointing to avoid an unnatural stretched appearance instead of
using a black background for close-up smile photos keep the camera set on your preferred
extra oral image settings and move in close the background will automatically go neutral or black
and only your subject will come into focus after patient positioning angling the camera itself is
a second most important step to acquire your desired outcome for full smile shots if the
chin has been positioned looking too low and the camera is facing from an obtuse angle then
foreshortening of the smile is the most likely outcome similar to over angulation of an x-ray
film positioned too high and a false reverse smile can appear along these same guidelines
lateral angulation will have the same adverse effect unless the camera is pointed at close
to 90 degrees as possible to the subject teeth difficult to reach posterior intraoral shots can
be aided with a clean intraoral mirror connected to a handle to retract the gingiva and reflect
the subject area at a more direct angle and then be flipped in post-production to give
the illusion that the photo was taken without the distraction of the cheeks and lips in all aspects
of Dentistry we learn how to manage an inherently busy working field saliva blood condensation and
other contaminants although native to the area caused serious distractions for high quality photo
rendering to remove extra oil distractions such as the lips cheeks and free gingiva a multitude
of different retraction devices are available to assist the photographer block out devices such as
an intraoral contrast err may cut away even more distractions such as the tongue throat and shade
variances while highlighting the subject area of the mouth and focusing the eyes towards them these
contrast errs can be used with or without lip and cheek retraction as needed posterior shots may or
may not need additional lighting depending on the quality of illumination from the camera flash test
a couple images with and without additional outside light sources involved to find what
works the best in each particular situation light reflecting off of the intraoral mirror may also
cause distortions pay close attention to the focus of the external light beam and adjust accordingly
to determine if light reflected off the mirror direct illumination or no external lighting at
all will work the best intraoral mirrors are most susceptible to fogging from breath condensation
a mirror can be heated in water to minimize fog accumulation however I try to stay far away from
this method simply because the water adds one more layer of distortion that I already don't
need a workaround instead simply applying a steady air blast from an air water syringe will instantly
defog the mirror and allow for a clear reflected shot if you are the only practitioner available
the use of an intraoral mirror with a handle is convenient to allow the patient to hold while
you simultaneously defog the mirror and inquire the photo most times when we ask a patient to
perform a specific movement maybe as simply as biting down into normal occlusion the patient
will attempt to overthink that action and smile or bite unnaturally it is important to practice
the specific actions that you are requesting with the patient and pay close attention to overzealous
positions such as the protruding of the jaw fake stretch smiles meant to show the teeth rather
than smile naturally and the failure to bite completely into centric occlusion specifying
exactly what is required in each step of the photography process and coaching the patient
along the way will ultimately result in photos that can be used for marketing education and as
legal documentation a smile photo should always be taken with a natural smile in place if the teeth
are meant to be profiled more than a natural smile will allow professional retraction devices need to
be utilized instead of a forced lift of the lip or stretched appearance whether your photography is
being used for marketing education documentation or self critique the more you can make your photo
stream complete the more successful you will be in achieving these individual goals I attempt
to document my doctor's procedures from before treatment shade after preparation stump shade
temporary stage final seat and the subsequent post procedural checks this data is also useful
to explain the patient's individual treatment back to them and raise the value that the patient feels
in their investment to elaborate on this topic photos that more closely match each other in
secession will garner the most understanding of the procedure the angulation lighting and
surroundings need to be acquired as similar as possible in each photo any post-production which
may include flipping or cropping images should also follow these rules in conclusion by combining
all of the basics outlining each of these photography steps the final photography produce
will naturally become consistent and complete without going out of the way to make it so
you