COMPARISON BETWEEN STANDARD AND MOBILE DENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Introduction:With the constant improvement of technology in recent years, mobile dental photography is gaining more and more popularity. Mobile phones have almost completely replaced compact cameras in everyday life. Aim:The aim is to determine whether a mobile phone can be used to take standard pictures of patients in daily dental practice. Material and methods:A total of 330extraoral photographs were taken of 33 patients. 10 photos were taken of each of them (5 extraoral and 5 intraoral).From the five photos there were one taken with a DSLR camera and four with a mobile phone with different magnification x2, x3, x4 and x5 and respectively from different distances. Eleven linear parameters were measured and compared. Results: In the photos taken with a mobile phone there is a deformation of the image compared to the photos taken with a DSLR camera at all magnifications. The largest deformation is at twice the magnification. The image is close to the photos taken with a DSLR camera at four and five times the magnification. Conclusion:The mobile phone is applicable for the extraoral dental photography. At four times magnification(x4) and distance of 110 cm the deformation of the image is negligible and the quality of the photos is good. For the intraoral photos if there is a need for an image with the correct and as close as possible to the actual proportions of the teeth, the first choice is the DSLR camera