Quadrants and Occlusals

Sex­tant Shot:

I’ve always called them Quad­rant shots, but its really hard to get all the way to the Centrals.

Pho­tog­ra­pher Position:

Depend­ing on if you are a righty or a lefty, the cam­era should be at either the 3 O’clock or the 9 O’clock posi­tion.  Some will take the pic­tures at 3 O’clock for teeth on the patient’s right  and 9 O’clock for those on the left.  I per­son­ally just stay at the 3 O’clock for both and just have the patient turn towards me for the left side and maybe con­tort myself to get the shot.

Patient Posi­tion Upper:

This took me for­ever to fig­ure out.  When tak­ing upper sex­tant shots, lay the patient flat, for the lower put them at 45 degrees.

Patient Posi­tion Lower:

For the lower, really tip the head back, you may end up being more in the 2 O’clock posi­tion by this time.

As stated before, you need to frame the shot, so that there is min­i­mal rotating:

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Point of Focus:

If there are 3rds present aim for the first molar, if not go for the sec­ond pre-molar

Lip Posi­tion Upper:

Another thing I just learned is to leave the oppo­site side retrac­tor in,  on the side you are pho­tograph­ing, pull the lip up or down.  In this case if we are visu­laiz­ing the upper left sex­tant, pull the lip up.

Tongue Posi­tion:

Some­times, espe­cially on sec­ond molars, the tongue just won’t play nice so some­times you need to use a mir­ror, I can show you later on how to pho­to­shop it out.

Mir­ror Position:

I stated this before, but if you keep the mir­ror para­lell to the arech, you will get more of the buc­cal or lin­gual due to the curve of wilson.

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Con­tinue with Extra­o­ral Photos