UTILISATION OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY IN DENTAL OFFICES FROM TÎRGU MUREŞ Coordinators: Lecturer Dr. Şoaita Claudia Student: Dicu Andrei- George

INTRODUCTION Digital photography has today, quite sure, penetrated into all segments of life, providing new facts and perceptions in the field of science, medicine, industry, fashion design, communication and arts.

The opinion of the majority prevails that photography has influenced the consience of people so much that the saying “a image is worth a thousand words” is accepted as an indubitable fact.

The basic aim of dental photography is documentation of dental treatment which includes photographs demonstrating the process and stages of therapeutic treatment.

Images should be made prior to each noninvasive and invasive diagnostic procedure, which results not only in a bunch of interesting dental files but it also shows those forensic elements as well, which are of crucial importance in judicial-medical, investigation and proof finding procedures. Dental photography is also useful in the course of treatment and control check-ups in order to monitor pathological changes of osseous and soft oral tissues. The results of investigations, furthermore, may be documented with the help of images in order to define preliminary diagnoses. Since the importance of dentistry shall be growing in the years to come, the mentioned aspects will have grater importance than earlier.

COMMUNICATION The appearance of hard and soft tissue may be quickly and easily photographed, thus facilitating the communication among dentist, physician and laboratory.

COMMUNICATION The images also provide dental technicians with important information on the structure and color of teeth, therewith making it possible to them to individually match aesthetically and functionally artificial crowns as much as possible with natural teeth. Even when the choice of color has not been made by the dentist, the photograph can be a means of direct communication with dental tehnician, with the aim of making the color of artificial crown and natural tooth on the photograph as more eves as possible.

MARKETING Marketing in the positive sense may allow the patient to immediately compare the beginning and outcome of the treatment. Two images, printed next to each other, are generally sufficient for this and can be given to the patient. There is probably no better, small but efficient, marketing tool from this. beforeafter

The aim of this paperwork was to investigate the frequency, ease and success of use of digital photography in the dental offices in Tirgu Mures. It also informs the students and the inexperienced practitioner and gives some insight into the overall importance of the digital dental photography that makes everyday practice more comprehensive, better quality and easier. OBJECTIVES

MATERIALS AND METHODS A questionnaire was randomly distributed to 30 dentists from Tirgu Mures. It was comprised of six questions regarding the dentist’s specialty, experience in dentistry and the importance of digital photography in one’s office, the frequency and the cases that one uses dental photography.

The first question was about the experience and as you see there were a few dentists with less then 5 years experience and the majority was over 10 years of experience.

As you can see the next question was about the importance of digital photography for themselves, and we observe that for a very high percent of them is important. On the oposite pole customary and unimportant are at the same percent.

FREQUENCY

ORTHODONTIC DOCUMENTATION The orthodontic documentation is the simplest to accomplish, and it is for the reason that orthodontics probably document their clinical cases the most often.

Frontal view of face with the lips relaxed Frontal view of face while smiling The extraoral series

ab Right (a) and left (b) profile full-face views with the lips relaxed.

ab Right (a) and left (b) profile full-face views while smiling.

Slight smile Average smile Maximum smile

Full arches in normal occlusion The intraoral series

Complete maxilary dentition: occlusal view Complete mandibular dentition: occlusal view

Right quadrants in occlusion Left quadrants in occlusion

Correct documentation of prosthetic rehabilitation requires the complete set of extroral and intraoral images. In addition to pre- and posttreatment images, photographs against a backround that provides significant contrast are recommended to highlight the nuances of surface color and texture, especially in anterior regions with high esthetic value. A black backround best distinguishes the details both of the teeth and the soft tissue. PROSTHETIC DOCUMENTATION

Maxillary anterior sextants: a.Incisal view b.Palatal view c.Frontal view (with contrastor) a b c

CONCLUSION The research and questionnaire undertake showed that digital photography is not largely used among the practitioners in Tirgu Mures. The reason most clinicians use the photography is to evaluate their treatment. The highest percent were in rare pathology patients and the specialty of dentistry that largely uses dental photography is orthodontics.

CONCLUSION Today dental photography is an important step in the practice of “complete” dentistry. Clinicians must now integrate existing photographic principles with today’s contemporary camera systems and computer software technology, this method of practice leading to predictable outcomes for their patients.

THANK YOU

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