Dr. Jack Griffin recently spoke to a group of our enrolled dental students in an online webinar on digital photography. Here are some of his tips for using photography effectively in your practice.
In dentistry, you'll learn the power of a picture. Why is photography so important? It's about emotion, emphasis, education and
encouragement.
- Emotion is what we're trying to get across to the patients, particularly when
we talk about high-end work, cosmetic work, implants, all those things. It's
about stirring an emotion inside of a patient that says, "Yes, I want that
treatment."
- Emphasis is what we refer to when we talk about making a treatment plan and
then showing a patient why we want them to have the work done that we
recommend. For example, if they had a cracked tooth and we want to do a crown on
the tooth, it's to emphasize why we think they need the crown.
- Next is to educate. We want to show the
patients what we can do, what we've done in the past and what it is we
plan on doing for them.
- Encourage them to accept treatment we've planned for them. It's a
big package of things to present to a patient, but showing them a visual representation of what we can do can aid in your discussion.
If you look at the return on investment on the things you can buy, an SLR camera can't be replaced.
In what ways have you used a digital camera in a treatment plan for a patient? What questions do you have about implementing a digital camera in your daily practice?