Dental Street Blog

SHADE COMMUNICATION: Patient Photography

5/9/2019

By: Dene LeBeau

Digital photography is great for Patient Case Presentation, Patient Records, and in large part, Patient Shade Information. A gray area does exist when the Case Presentation Photos are used for the needs of the Ceramist. When building a case, a ceramist would likely view Case Presentation photos from a different perspective than the clinician. After all, the Case Presentation photos were created for a different purpose than the desired ceramic result. Besides Value, Chroma and Contour, our ceramic result will also be judged on items like surface texture, interproximal papilla contours, dark dentin influence and much more. Would your case presentation photos necessarily support the ceramic decisions for these critical areas? So, what Patient Photo Communication would a skilled ceramist need from the clinician? Heart felt belief and high expectations have compelled us to thoroughly review this question and put forth the Shade Photos we need and the reasons our ceramists need them! Enclosed is a picture story told by our three expert ceramists and myself, made in the scope of desired distance, angles and exposure for Patient Shade Photography Communication; and created from twenty-five years of building complex cases together. We are asking our clients to view and then imitate our new photo series for anterior and posterior casework, exactly or as close as possible. It’s all about Distance-Angles-Exposure.

Our laboratory goal is to consistently create life-like functional restorations on each case we do! We are absolutely certain about the photographs we need, so they were taken and arranged in a chronological order for you. These photos are now on our website with reasoned text beneath each frame. We hope to compel you to reproduce our photos as closely as possible and feel free to alter some of the oblique photos, dependent on which teeth are being restored. ALWAYS include a few extra photos for an item of special concern and verify your concern points along with shade selections on the RX. Try to keep your extra photos to seven shots, so that we receive a maximum of fifteen photos per patient. Too many pictures from different time periods can be very confusing. This new Shade Photo Series represents a request only and will not make our ceramic result perfect, just a lot more consistent! We absolutely accept most Shade Guides and want you to use this same Photo Series now on our website. To aid you in Value Shade selection, you need to arrange your Value Shades in a chronologic order from (light to dark) in your cartridge. For instance, the classic Vita-Lumin Value order from light to dark is; B1-A1-B-2-D2-A2-C1-C2-D3-A3-D4-B3-A3.5-B4-C3-A4-C-4 and most companies will give you the Value sequence of their shade guide if you call them. If you elect to use a rare shade guide, include the shade tabs with your case. ALWAYS imitate our photo series with any Shade Guide system you use. We welcome your feedback and questions; so do not hesitate to call me. Lets get better together!

The Value (light or dark of the tooth) is the #1 reason that restorations are returned to the lab for shade change. Typically the RX will read, “fix shade” but the problem is typically the “wrong value”. Value is King for beautiful restorations! ALWAYS squint your eyes for better results when judging Value shades. Hue, (color of tooth) is more easily seen with eyes wide open. ALWAYS take Patient Shades Photos under color corrected or natural light!

Please click here to view our new Shade Communication Photo’s.
Please click here to see Linearguide 3D Master instructional video.