How to take great patient images

Getting good images is crucial to your success with CoTreat. The more you upload the more value will be in your Navigator Reports. Intraoral photographs in particular are very helpful and capturing them is a great way to increase engagement with your patients and help them to better understand their treatment. Though photography can appear complicated, with the right equipment and the right settings anyone can take good photos. This guide will show you everything you need to know to take fantastic intra oral photos.

What you need

Retractors
Intraoral mirror
DSLR
Ring flash

Manual Settings:

Manual settings allow for consistent images. Camera settings seem complicated but you only need to set them up once. The ones you need to change are:

Shutter speed
set to 1/100
Aperture (F number)
set to 35
Focus mode
set to autofocus
Flash Settings
Use E-TTL

Note: another factor affecting image consistency is the zoom of the lens. If your lens has an adjustable zoom, take all photos at the same zoom level. Using the maximum or minimum zoom level makes this easier.

Taking the shot

Heat up the mirror - submerge it in a dish of hot water
Ask your patient to hold the retractors themselves
Get close to the pt to make the teeth larger in the frame

Taking the arch photos

Ask the patient to lean back into the headrest and lower the chair so you can stand over the mirror
insert the now warm mirror to the back of the mouth
use the lip retractor to get an unobstructed shot - ask the patient to hold it in place
angle the camera and mirror to ensure as close to perpendicular angle as possible

Saving your photos

import them into your image software to be saved in the patient's file
orient the arch photos correctly

Rotate 180° clockwise
Flip horizontally

Incorrectly oriented images will decrease the reliability of the report