The next level

Photos are important; in my opinion a camera is one of the primary tools that alldentists should be using. Once the basics of clinical photography are understood it’s quite simple to do and can even be delegated to another member of staff to save clinical time.

One of the most significant benefits of good clinical photography is that it allows you to keep good records, helping you to reassess the quality of your work and improve your standards. As such, having a standardised number of shots is really important. This means you have something that is useful that can be reassessed rather than taking shots that are not comparable. It is also very important that you have a good camera, ideally you should be using a single-lens reflex (SLR) rather than a cheap shooter camera. Even though SLRs look intimidating, they only really have three settings you need to know about to get a nice set of pictures.