Digital photography and the assessment of therapeutic results after bleaching procedures.

UNLABELLED: The therapeutic outcome of tooth-bleaching procedures can be assessed by different methods, one of them being digital photography. However, none of the methods seems to be perfect. In this overview factors are discussed that have an influence on color rendition and image brightness in (digital) photography. A photographic procedure is proposed that results in comparable images. Beginning with a short description of some digital cameras currently used in dental photography, the article discusses the influence of light and camera technology on image brightness and color rendition in detail. Even if a highly standardized procedure is performed, there remain factors that affect color and brightness that cannot be excluded completely. Therefore, a photographic procedure is proposed that includes a piece of gray card in the picture as a neutral reference object. In this way, color casts can be eliminated and image brightness can be fine tuned using a standard image-editing program (Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Systems Incorporated, San Jose, CA, USA) before the relevant color values are metered by the same software. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: A photographic procedure using digital cameras is proposed that is relatively simple and sufficiently precise to allow the assessment of the therapeutic outcome of tooth-bleaching procedures.