Quality of clinical photographs taken by orthodontists, professional photographers, and orthodontic auxiliaries

Abstract

A survey of the members of the Angle Society of Europe showed that 60% of orthodontists took their own clinical photographs, 35% assigned the task to an auxiliary, and 5% hired professional clinical photographers. It is always useful to ensure that orthodontists' time is used to maximum effect. Clinical photography could be delegated to auxiliary staff. In this study, we assessed the quality of photographs taken by orthodontists to see whether those taken by orthodontic auxiliaries and clinical photographers are of comparable quality. Fifty sets of orthodontic photographs were collected from each of 3 types of photographers: orthodontists, orthodontic auxiliaries, and professional clinical photographers. Four assessors scored each set for quality and detailed errors. The results were compared to determine whether there were differences between the quality of the photographs taken by the different groups. Most of the photos taken by the 3 groups of photographers were judged to be good or acceptable. The results for extraoral photographs showed no statistically significant differences between the 3 groups for good (P = 0.398) and acceptable (P = 0.398) images. The results for intraoral photographs did not differ significantly for acceptable and unacceptable photographs, but orthodontists produced significantly more good-quality intraoral photographs (P = 0.046).