dental photography | dental photo protocol

The reasons why DSLR cameras have lost ground to smartphones are obvious to anyone who has tried shooting in manual mode with external flash. Every time you change location, the camera and lighting settings need adjusting. I regularly receive photos from clients for publication on their website that are out of focus, too dark, or overexposed. The dentist completed a full treatment, photographed the result — and missed focus. Everything needs reshooting. Working with a DSLR camera is genuinely complex.

Let us leave the DSLR section for advanced enthusiasts and look for a simpler solution.

When it comes to preparing cases for a dental website today, I send my clients a different list of equipment — roughly three times cheaper.

There are many beautiful photographs of ceramic crowns — but die preparations as beautiful as Vitaly Ivanchenko's, I have never seen from anyone else. It goes without saying how the patient's perception of the restorative dentist changes when they see photographs like these.

Vitaly regularly runs tooth preparation training courses. I think his course would be even stronger if he added material on how he photographs so beautifully.

We have arrived at the subject of choosing professional camera-mounted lighting.

Light is the most important element in any photography.

I will now share my observations on the options available, explain why the standard solutions fall short, and show how to achieve beautiful, even fill light.

Traditionally, dentists are offered ring flashes and bipolar flashes. In the slides below I show how the lighting pattern changes with different light sources — standard positions, flashes spread wider, and softboxes added.

Many dentists work with ring flashes, but it is worth understanding why they are so widespread: it is purely a matter of price. They are simply the cheapest option — and they produce the worst result. For documentary photography of a single crown this may be acceptable, but the moment aesthetics matter at all, you start looking at bipolar flashes and softboxes. In my view that is what you should buy from the start.

With bipolar flashes, two factors matter: the ability to spread them wider, and the ability to attach softboxes. Some dedicated dental bipolar kits fix the flashes rigidly to the lens without allowing separation, and their reflectors are small — which puts them on a par with a ring flash. The key is to have equipment that allows you to spread the flashes and attach proper light-diffusing softboxes.

As you can see, the most even fill light without harsh reflections comes from bipolar flashes spread wide. Let us estimate what such a kit costs.

This is an expensive kit, but it can be made cheaper by substituting the original flashes with alternatives, and the bracket can also be assembled from other components. With this approach the cost can be reduced significantly. But there is another way to achieve beautiful fill light — and for considerably less money.

But there is another way to achieve beautiful fill light — and for considerably less money.

That is why a third person — a photographer — is often present during surgical documentation. Do not expect aesthetic photographs from the surgeon during a procedure. The anaesthetic is wearing off, there is blood, maintaining a clean field is paramount — there are many demands on the surgeon's attention at that moment, and photography is not one of them.

I would recommend not waiting for the surgeon to pick up a camera. Of all the specialists, surgeons have the least time and mental bandwidth for it. If you need good surgical photographs, involve a second assistant. All dental assistants should be able to work with a camera. When I was at ZimmerDental and needed photographs from a major surgery, I attended the procedure and photographed it myself. Even then it noticeably slowed the operation — asking the surgeon to hold a moment for the shot adds real time for a patient under anaesthesia.

For the dental website, to show patients a clinical case, you do not necessarily need to photograph the surgery itself. Good before-implantation photographs and post-restoration documentation — and possibly soft tissue healing images — will already answer many patient questions and encourage them to contact your clinic.

Let us define what criteria this light must meet:

• compact in size
• suitable for sterilisation
• mounted on the camera
• soft enough to fill the entire surgical field without shadows

Dental photography is technically not a demanding task for a camera. You do not need to buy a professional full-frame camera to do this work well.

That said, I personally own a full-frame camera — my second — because professional cameras are faster, more accurate, perform better in challenging conditions, and I use mine for everything: training events, portraits, interiors, and complex surgical procedures.

A good full-frame camera gives you a feeling of freedom — it handles every task, even the difficult ones. I became genuinely passionate about photography the first time someone put a professional camera with an expensive lens in my hands. Wherever I pointed it, the result was beautiful — instant focus, sharp, vivid, with that beautiful background blur. You feel like a professional photographer in an instant. After that experience, ordinary cameras disappear from your consideration. You want to work only with that kind of tool.

I have repeated this experience many times — handing a professional camera to someone and watching their face change. After that, shooting with a mediocre body and dark glass simply holds no appeal.

Previous-generation full-frame cameras are now available at very attractive prices. This is a superb camera — I have one and use it for everything: training events run by my surgeon friends, and lengthy three-hour surgical procedures.

If you use Canon and do not want to switch systems, the 5D Mark III is an excellent previous-generation camera that outperforms many current mid-range models.