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INTRODUCTION: Digital photography is more and more important in our everyday medical practice. Patient data, medico-legal proof, remote diagnosis, forums, and medical publications are some of the applications of digital photography in medical and dental fields. A lot of small, light, and cheap cameras are on the market. The main issue is to obtain good, reproducible, cheap, and easy-to-shoot pictures. TECHNICAL NOTE: Every medical situation, portrait in esthetic surgery, skin photography in dermatology, X-ray pictures or intra-oral pictures, for example, has its own requirements. For these reasons, we have tried to find an "ideal" compact digital camera. The Sony DSC-T90 (and its T900 counterpart with a wider screen) seems a good choice. Its small size makes it usable in every situation and its price is low. An external light source and a free photo software (XnView((R))) can be useful complementary tools. The main adjustments and expected results are discussed.

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This paper is the first article in a new ten-part series on digital dental photography. Part 1 previews and outlines the contents of the subsequent papers and in addition, defines the aims and objectives of a digital dental image and the features that are required for an ideal intra-oral picture.

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Digital dental photography has been crucial to the advancement of cosmetic dental procedures. It is an effective and necessary tool in the aesthetic dentist's armamentarium. Practice will allow the dentist to archive treatment results and allow every case to be improved. Dentists wishing to advance their techniques and to complete accreditation protocols should master these techniques.

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Over the last five years digital photography has become ubiquitous. For the family photo album, a 4 or 5 megapixel camera costing about 2000 NIS will produce satisfactory results for most people. However, for intra-oral photography the common wisdom holds that only professional photographic equipment is up to the task. Such equipment typically costs around 12,000 NIS and includes the camera body, an attachable macro lens and a ringflash. The following article challenges this conception. Although professional equipment does produce the most exemplary results, a highly effective database of clinical pictures can be compiled even with a "non-professional" digital camera. Since the year 2002, my clinical work has been routinely documented with digital cameras of the Nikon CoolPix series. The advantages are that these digicams are economical both in price and in size and allow easy transport and operation when compared to their expensive and bulky professional counterparts. The details of how to use a non-professional digicam to produce and maintain an effective clinical picture database, for documentation, monitoring, demonstration and professional fulfillment, are described below.

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Intraoral cameras (IOCs) are extremely valuable tools for today's dental practices, though many dentists still do not incorporate them into their practices. They provide an empowering technology for diagnosis, patient education, case presentation, and virtual documentation. This article outlines important factors to consider when choosing an IOC for use in dental practices, gives an overview of the various IOCs available on the market, and discusses cost and return on investment.

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This survey was carried out to allow a minimum data set required for intra- and extra-oral photographs to be established. In 1999 a questionnaire was sent to members of the Angle Society of Europe to establish their current clinical practice with regard to extra- and intra-oral photography. The Angle Society was chosen because of their stated commitment to a high standard of record keeping and of clinical care. Results showed that a full series of extra- and intra-oral photographs were taken both before and after treatment, as well as stage photographs during treatment on many cases. The need for each of these photographs will be discussed in some detail, and recommendations will be made as to what would be considered the Gold standard before, during, and after a course of orthodontic treatment.

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Patient dental records are the most critical component of every dental practice. Whether these records are maintained in traditional cardboard folders or as digital bytes of information, the completeness of their contents is important to successful patient care. Two trends are expanding the contents of the dental record to include photographs. One of these trends is the widespread interest in esthetic restorative dentistry and the other is the increasing level of expectations by the public. More than ever, patients are seeking dental treatment to alter the appearance of their teeth. Unfortunately, esthetic restorative dentistry often is not part of a formal dental education. In addition, esthetics is a subjective topic, and patient demands and expectations can easily exceed a dentist's skill and expertise. This can ultimately lead to an "unhappy patient syndrome" and cause conflict between the patient and the dental team. Sometimes this conflict can result in litigation, which is another reason that photographs are a valuable addition to the patient record. The information that is contained in a good-quality set of "before" and "after" photographs cannot be duplicated with other components of the dental record. Taking the time to assemble adequate baseline records is always critical before any patient care is initiated. In restorative dentistry, this includes the standard of care elements: a health history, soft-tissue examination, periodontal examination, teeth and restoration examination, study casts, and an adequate radiographic survey. The use of photography in dentistry has historically been limited to the field of orthodontics. It is the standard of care for orthodontic baseline records, but has not been mandated for restorative dentistry. Memories are rarely accurate about subtle details of one's appearance and people can easily forget what their original smiles looked like even though treatment time may only be a matter of days. Baseline photographs provide an irrefutable record of pretreatment conditions in correct context. More importantly, you do not have to be a dentist to interpret the general information that is displayed on a photograph. To gain additional perspective on this issue, we consulted a panel of three dentists who are well recognized for their expertise in dental esthetics and imaging.

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