Using iPhones for Dental Photography

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Across the world, people are now reaching for their phones instead of their digital cameras to take photos. The dental world is no different. Every day, more dentists are reaching for their iPhones instead of their digital cameras when taking clinical pictures.

Although phones are familiar and convenient, there have been issues that hinder their effectiveness.

The two largest issues that dentists face when choosing to use their iPhone cameras are:

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Secure Note eliminates eMail and phone tag with your lab

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Dentists and labs can now communicate instantly on Shade Matching cases within ShadeWave.  

As we all know, HIPAA compliance in Dental Offices and Dental Laboratories is very important. With this in mind, ShadeWave has added a new feature called Secure Note to our Dental Shade Matching Software. Secure Note is an embedded communication tool inside of ShadeWave that facilitates secure, convenient correspondence between the dentist and the dental laboratory technician. All conversations are stored in the patient’s record and are accessible any time.The goal of Secure Note is to facilitate more frequent, HIPAA compliant, communication between dentists and their dental laboratory while eliminating wasted time playing phone or email tag.  View all ShadeWave Features >

“Success or failure largely depends on the accurate transfer of subtle information from the dentist to the laboratory.” 
– Jean Sagara, Dental Economics

Learn more about ShadeWave in the Spring 2016 issue of Journal of Cosmetic Dentistry article “New Algorithm in Shade Matching”.

Visit our website at: ShadeWave.com or Click to Schedule a personal demo today.

Four ways to add value to your next CE

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The dental field is a constantly shifting landscape. Advances in the industry are exploding into the market every day. Products like CAD CAM milling machines are quickly growing from an abstract concept, into an industry standard. Patient records have jumped from physical to digital.  And there is a constant pressure to stay competitive.
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Color calibration of dental cameras is no longer required for dental shade matching.

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Color calibration and lighting is one of the biggest challenges dentist face when taking patient photos for shade. The lingering problem has been solved by ShadeWave Dental Shade Matching Software. ShadeWave automatically color corrects poorly lit photos in real-time and creates three proprietary digital maps: shade, translucency and value. These highly accurate maps provide a detailed guide for labs to achieve accurate and consistent dental shade matching results.

To illustrate this proprietary feature, Dennis Braunston, the Developer and President of ShadeWave conducted an experiment using a Canon G16 Camera and Shade Reference to take three smile photos with different lighting.

The camera was purposely color calibrated differently for each picture. Photo 1: was normal, or white balanced, Photo 2: was too red, and Photo 3: too blue. The photos were uploaded into ShadeWave and automatically color corrected.

sw_color_test

 

Notice that although the gum tissue looks slightly different, the teeth are all the same shade. This is highlighted in the Color Corrected Illustration in the column labeled, “Filtered, Neutral Gray.”

Dennis then sampled the Shade Reference tab and revealed the shade map of the two front teeth in all three photos. The software allows the user to switch between any Shade Guide they desire, Dennis chose to use Vita Classic.

ShadeWave assigns different colors to different shades. In the column labeled “Shade Map,” we can see that the program uses Yellow for C1, Burgundy for B2 and Green for A1. With ShadeWave the user can select the number of shades shown in the picture, in this illustration, there are three.

All three photos result in the same shade map when processed through ShadeWave. The maps display the same general characterizations of the tooth, and provide information needed to produce a beautifully matched crown.

What does this mean? This experiment shows that a digital camera no longer needs to be color calibrated before taking a photo of the teeth. With varying color differentiations, ShadeWave was able to accurately correct a photo to the same standards.

For more information on this article and ShadeWave visit: www.shadewave.com, or call Dennis Braunston at (425) 557-7788.