Digital photography has exploded into dentistry in the last 6-7 years with the advent of more affordable digital SLR cameras, and even more importantly with the increase in the number of dentists teaching how to use it. For years, many dentists never chose to use photography in their practice for the simple reason that it was a serious hassle — had to buy film, often didn’t need to use up an entire roll on 1 patient, had to wait for the film to be developed to know if the pictures turned out well, the cost of developing, and the incredible hassle of storing all those pictures, whether prints or slides.

In my office, I made the switch to digital in 2003 with a Olympus C-2500L. Not the greatest, but I still have all those images. In 2004, however, I switched to the Canon Digital Rebel, one of the first “pro-sumer” DSLRs. About 2006, I purchased a Canon 30D for my personal use, and at the beginning of 2008, when my venerable Rebel finally died, I switched to the Canon XTi body in combination with the Canon 60mm and 100mm macro lenses and Canon ring-flash.

In my own office catalog of images, there are now about 38,000 images, the large majority of which were taken since 2005, when I started photographing almost all of my dentistry, not just my cosmetic work.

In the 21st century, I simply cannot imagine practicing without the power of digital photography; there simply is no more powerful tool for effective communication with patients.

If you’re in dentistry and you want to learn how to incorporate this awesome technology into your practice, give me a call or email, and we’ll talk about what you need, how to integrate it, how to get your staff onboard, and how to make it work for you!