Patient Position
I think what sort of inspired me to start this thread was observing a dental assistant at an in-office CEREC training taking a picture of #3, then #30. She more or less started at the foot of the chair and contorted herself and tried to get both shots from that position with a point and shoot camera. The pictures turned out OK, but more or less were on par with an IOC. The occlusal tables were not in view, and after cropping out stuff, maybe only 3 teeth were viewable in the sextant image. I noticed the same thing when I went to train my staff, so lets go over where to stand and at what angle to put the patient.
The best way to think about where to stand when taking a shot is to think about the headrest as a clock. With the foot of the chair being the 12 oclock poistion, the patient’s right is 3 O’clock, the top of the patient’s head is 6 O’clock, and the patient’s left is 9 O’clock.
Chair Position:
I more or less only have two chair positions. 45 degrees for lowers and flat or uppers:
When taking either an upper sextant shot or occlusal, I lay the patient flat and raise them as high as the chair goes.
On the lowers I put the patient at a 45 degree angle and lower the chair so that the patients head is about level to my waist.
Continue with Quadrant and Occlusal Intraoral Pictures