Sameer Puri D.D.S. At the Scottsdale Center and for my personal photography, I currently use a Nikon camera body and have two different types of flash set ups that I have depending on whether or not I'm doing an anterior tooth or a posterior one. The twin flash set up that you see below is great for anterior teeth. The goal of the flash should be to get the flash away from the lens. The further away it is, the “softer” the light that comes out of it. The twin flash lights up the front teeth evenly.
If you look at this anterior shot, the colors are well represented, there is good contrast and the picture is well exposed. Perhaps a bit underexposed but we can easily correct that in the settings of either Keynote or Powerpoint.
The problem is when you try to use this twin flash for posterior teeth. Because its more difficult to get the light on the distal surfaces of the teeth, you tend to get shadows. One way to circumvent this is to take the picture from further out so the cheek does not block the light and then zoom in digitally. Even with this, I personally have a more difficult time getting the proper exposure with posterior teeth with a twin flash.
You can see how the distal of the second molar is not well lit. There are a lot of shadows on the distal surface compared to the 1st molar.
For posterior teeth, I recommend a ring flash. The ring flash while it doesn’t work as well in the anterior causing over exposure and a bit too harsh of a light, works great in the posterior. The ring flash gives even lighting without shadows because the light is directly over the teeth and does not get blocked out by the lips and cheeks. A photo of the ring flash is shown below. Both of these flashes are available for both Canon and Nikon from the internet or you can visit www.photomed.net who specializes in dental photography.
Regardless of what you use, good clinical photography is a must for documentation and case presentation. Get a good camera and document your cases so that you can improve your clinical dentistry by reviewing the work that you do as well as having cases to show your patients.
