Photographs in Orthodontics - Dental Photography

Photographs in dentistry are of great importance because they tell a lot about the patient's dental conditions at once. As the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words", that holds true in dentistry. Some advantages of photographic record in dentistry are:


i) For diagnosis and treatment planning
ii) To keep records of patients
iii) To compare pre treatment and post treatment results
iv) To communicate with dentists all over the world
v) In preparing case studies and reports

Mastering photography in dentistry is a time consuming skill that develops over years. But few perspectives and views that provide a great detail and are useful in dental diagnosis (Orthodontics in particular) are listed below.

1. Profile view - to evaluate skeletal abnormalities and concavity/convexity  of face
2. Frontal view at rest - to evaluate face form, facial asymmetry, lower facial height, lip competency
3. Frontal view Smiling - to evaluate smile, midline shift, diastema
4. Maxillary occlusal view - to evaluate the line of occlusion, caries in need of restoration
5. Mandibular occlusal view - to evaluate the line of occlusion, caries in need of restoration
6. Intraoral Right - to evaluate molar relation , overjet
7. Intraoral Front - Overbite, midline shift, diastema
8. Intraoral Left - to evaluate molar relation, overjet