Quick Tip: The Most Important Tool in Your Office

15 years ago, I thought the most important tool in my office was my X-ray unit. It allowed me to diagnose and treat patients. I never thought that I would say, at that time, that my camera is the most important instrument that I have in my office.

What a camera has allowed me to do, even on a intraoral basis, a simple intraoral camera versus a digital SLR or any of them, a point and shoot, it allows us to see things. It allows us to see things we never could see before. It allows us to open up conversations with patients.

Very often, I will take a picture and just put it on the screen and let the patient do the talking. Because if you let that silence fill the room for 30 seconds, the patient will start asking the questions. Let photography guide you through your examinations. Let it guide you through your hygiene visits and start having the patients talk to you about their implications of what they’re seeing in the photography.