Dentists use a dental intraoral camera as a tool to improve the patient’s awareness. The dentist uses it to capture the inside of the patient’s mouth and display its digital images.
The dentist then uses these images to prepare the patient’s case documentation.
The intraoral camera is portable and can connect to the dentist’s computer using a USB or a docking station. In most cases, the intraoral camera is equipped with its LED; hence images are captured without external light.
In most cases, due to the lack of understanding of the treatment, the patient does not accept what the dentist tells them; hence an intraoral camera helps the patient see what the dentist sees. Something like a damaged tooth can be more visible when on a monitor or TV screen to the patient.
What Are Some Recent Improvements To A Intraoral Camera?
In the modern-day, anyone can take good pictures because of the high-tech improvements in autofocus technology. The camera lens auto-adjusts its shutter speed based on certain evaluations performed by the sensors. And based on the inputs, it also adjusts its focus.
These sensors that help the functioning of the camera come in two varieties, active and passive.
- Active sensors take in two pieces of information, any request for more light or if a change in distance to the subject is required, and sends this as a signal to the different part of the camera.
- Passive sensors send signals to the lens; for how long the lens should remain open for an appropriate amount of light to come in.
So when there is less light available, the aperture remains open for a longer time, allowing more light to reach the captured image. All this sensing of information and passing it to the camera’s different areas happen within less than a second. The camera changes its focus and senses the image to see how much focus has improved, and repeats the process until the focus is clear. All this happens in the time you press a button.
Why Did The Camera Not Focus?
- There was not enough light.
- The contrast between the primary subject and the background was not sufficient.
- The subject was moving.
These factors are even applicable to a dental intraoral camera.
The purpose of modern-day cameras is to focus quickly like the human eye, and the latest generation of intraoral cameras also function similarly. It has more sensors; hence the dentist points at what they want to see, and the camera does the rest.
For years, dentists explain to patients what they see and what it means, but they have been unsuccessful. Now patients can see what is happening in real-time, all thanks to intraoral cameras.
If looking to learn more about intraoral cameras and how our dentists are using them, give us a call at 612-782-7000 or book an appointment with one of our dentists today.