Although some dentists still prefer to use before and after photographs of their previous cases, cosmetic imaging (manipulating stock digital photographs or those taken of your patients to demonstrate the esthetic enhancements possible with their smiles) is a very hot topic these days. There are several software programs available on the market today to aid the dentist in this practice. These programs are designed to increase case acceptance by allowing your patients to directly visualize the changes that are possible in their appearance. As has been said many times before, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Some of these packages, such as Smart Technology’s Smile Library II, show this transformation using idealized photos of cosmetic procedures, anywhere from simple vital tooth lightening up to full coverage restoration of the entire smile zone. Others, like Dentrix’s Image 4.0, upload digital pictures that you take of your patients and then allow you to do the same kind of image management with them. Still others, Carestream Dental's Cosmetic Imaging Module for example, have both a pre-programmed smile library and the ability to process digital photos taken by the dentist. Those that are manufactured by companies making practice office software can also be integrated with imaging programs into a total system.
While these imaging programs are quite comprehensive, they do have a significant learning curve and take up a certain amount of doctor or staff time. They can also be somewhat expensive, so unless you know that you will be using yours on a frequent basis (as often as your x-rays, for example); you may want a “pay as you go” option. Some laboratories offer a similar service that allows you to have this imaging support as you need it, provided by those who are actually fabricating the restorations. This arrangement generally offers a more extensive and realistic image development while coordinating the proposed treatment with the finished product as closely as possible. And as any lab owner will tell you, having a direct hand in what creates your patient’s desires goes a long way towards success in satisfying them.
Such laboratories such as Smile-Vision in Newton, Mass. not only craft the provisional and definitive restorations you prescribe for your patients, but also create the augmented images they are based on that you used to garner case acceptance in the first place.
The formula here is relatively simple. First, you send a digital portrait of the patient for whom you are presenting a cosmetic treatment plan to the laboratory along with a detailed description of the contemplated treatment. This can also be done with photographic prints sent by standard mail to the laboratory, but not with quite the same level of quality. One of the laboratory’s dental artists then modifies the picture you’ve supplied to reflect the projected treatment and your office is notified that this stage of the case is ready via email. “Rush” service at an additional fee is available from many of these laboratories. The original “before” and revised “after” picture are subsequently either posted on the password-protected account page set up for you by the lab on their website, or printed out by the laboratory and sent to you in the mail. Many labs offer the latter in a special display folder and envelope for effective case presentation. If you choose to go with what is posted on your account page, you can either print these out yourself for your patients or display them on the monitors in your operatories, assuming your operatories are equipped with computers having internet access.
Either way, when your patients can actually look at the treatment you have been explaining to them with a photo of their own (improved) smile, it will have an impressively positive impact on them. This leads to higher levels of case acceptance and increased rates of production. From there, the precise coordination of the initial imaging with the delivered restorations will achieve a result that is exactly what your patient expected and was looking for.
Case acceptance has to be one of the ultimate goals of treatment planning because without it, the plan cannot be executed. A key component of case acceptance is effective communication of the treatment planned to your patient. This becomes even more important for cosmetic procedures that are not covered by your patient’s dental benefits and thus must be paid out of pocket. The vast majority of your patients respond most positively to visual communication. Successful cosmetic imaging can turn this treatment from merely an option into a strong desire and, as is noted on the Smile-Vision web site, “When they want it, most will find a way to get it.”