Why take clinical photographs?

Clinical photographs provide a wealth of information about a patient's clinical situation. It is the only record that demonstrates accurate reproduction of tooth shape and colour and it is the record most easily interpreted by our patients. Despite the extra time and effort involved, there are many reasons to take clinical photographs in daily practice:

• Photographs are useful as clinical records. Full arch photos show a true to detail snapshot of the patient's condition on the day. From a set of full arch photographs you could almost perform a full examination in terms of charting restorations, caries and wear.
• Treatment planning: Complex treatment plans can rarely be constructed on the spot. A set of models and full clinical records can be a substitute to having the patient in the room and time can be taken to treatment plan off these records. Models alone don't consider the patient's tooth position in 3 dimensions relative to the face and smile line.
• Communication to lab: Photographs of the mockups, shade tabs and the patient's teeth relative to the face can be invaluable for lab technicians to construct ideal prostheses
• Patient education: Unlike radiographs, patients have a ready understanding of the structures viewed on photographs. Full arch photographs can be magnified to show a quadrant or an individual tooth and this can give the patient a snapshot of what we see relative to other structures. Often the difficulty with communication is that patient's can't see what we see.
• Quality control: Often there are imperfections in our work that we can't see until we take a high quality macro photograph. Rough areas, poorly contoured or overhanging restorations can be obvious on a photograph but difficult to see in a clinical situation. These can then be corrected
• When taking photographs to share your work with colleagues, we will unconsciously work harder to make our work presentable. Indirectly we will be providing a better product to our patients by critically evaluating our work before the photograph.
• Looking back at my clinical photographs from university and the first few years of private practice I can immediately see how much I have improved in terms of clinical skills and photography. This is motivational and gives hope for further improvement in the future. Conversely, with fresh eyes and further learning you may start to see that techniques you employed in the past may not be the best in that clinical situation and this in itself is a learning experience.
• The only way you can improve in your work is to look at where you have come from and follow up your work over time. As patients start to return you can see how your work has changed in the oral environment from the day you have placed it. Nothing we do lasts forever and you can start to see what works well in your hands and what is stable.