Uso de la fotografía clínica en la consulta odontológica privada del municipio libertador del estado Mérida, Venezuela

Abstract

Dental clinical photography is an indispensable tool for the dental practice, since through this means a visual record is obtained without being in the arduous task of making a verbal des-cription of the observed. Due to its importance and insufficient evidence on the use of this tool, the present study was conducted to determine the use of clinical photography in the private dental clinic of the Libertador municipality of the state of Merida. The sample con-sisted of 40 dentists, using a mixed and self-administered questionnaire of eight (08) items that addressed the use, techniques and purpose of clinical photography. The results were pro-cessed through Microsoft Excel software and statistical package SPSS version 19.0. of the respondents, 85% make use of clinical photography, of which 30% use it for the evolution of treatments. In addition, 56% use the cell phone camera. On the other hand, the biggest draw-back was lighting (35.2%). Most of the respondents use clinical photography more frequently for legal medical records, communication with the dental technician, evolution of treatments, case reports, marketing and publicity. However, they manifest certain limitations.