Dental Photography as a Method of Documentation in Saudi Arabia

Aim: To determine the application of dental photography throughout Saudi Arabia in the daily clinical
practice by the dental healthcare professionals, to evaluate its application in the academic clinic and to
evaluate the risk of infection control.
Materials and Methods: The survey was conducted in hard and soft copies with self-administered 20
closed question questionnaires, an optimal sample size was approximated at 383 and 596 responses were
collected. The data were analyzed through IBM SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) Statistics
Windows version 22
Findings: From the online survey, 133 responses were included for analysis and from the hardcopy
distribution; a respectable 463 questionnaires were included from an original 600. The mean age of
respondents was 24.72 years (range 20-56) and more dental students responded than dentists (84.9%
versus 15.1%).
Conclusion: Majority of the respondents were dental students having multitude of assignments, time is
therefore a critical factor which played a major role in their hesitation to document their cases
photographically. Last but not least, lacking an assigned personal dental assistant encourages dental
students to use their mobile cameras and take verbal consent over written consent when dealing with their
patients.