Dentists often find it helpful to be able to show patients exactly what is going on inside their mouths, and to highlight areas where medical attention may be needed. Patients are also less likely to defer or refuse procedures when they can clearly see the area at issue, as some people are suspicious of recommendations for dental procedures, due to concerns about cost, potential pain, or the fears about members of the dental profession.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. You made the wise decision to purchase an intraoral camera because you thought it would be a good addition to your practice. The problem is that it’s not being used, and currently there is little or no return on your investment.

Offices that use intraoral cameras allow patients to be more interactive in the exam process, which provides patients with a greater sense of understanding and responsibility about personal dental health. Although a traditional visual inspection of the teeth may have sufficed in the past, technology has made it possible for dentists and patients to reap many more benefits from each health exam.

The intraoral camera enlarges the inside of the teeth to more than 40 times their actual size on a full color screen display. By zooming in on problem areas in affecting the teeth, dentists are capable of seeing much more than they could with the human eye alone. Often, dentists find the beginnings of periodontal disease or tooth decay that would have otherwise gone undetected if examined without the intraoral camera.

Images taken by an intraoral camera can also be reviewed later, which can be useful for a dentist who feels a nagging suspicion that something is not quite right in the mouth of a patient. Previously, dentists merely attempted to write an explanation of problems found during exams. Now, dentists can accurately track the progress of treatments or problems for years following a visit.

Furthermore, patients can receive printed pictures of the conditions the dentist finds, which may be beneficial for filing insurance claims. The intraoral camera can also be used to document procedures for legal and educational reasons, and to create projections of a patient’s mouth which can be used in medical schools for the purpose of educating future dentists about various issues which pertain to oral health.