Dental photography practice among dental students

Objectives: 1) To determine the demographics of the student participants;
2) To determine the reasons for using dental photography among students;
3) To determine the ethical and clinical training of dental students in photography;
4) To determine access to necessary dental photography equipment;
5) To determine the association between reasons for taking photographs, ethical and clinical training of dental students; and graduation status.
Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used on staff and students at the University of the Western Cape’s Dental Faculty in 2022. Chi-squared, Fisher’s exact tests were used to determine associations between the different graduation status (undergraduate and qualified oral healthcare practitioners), and various demographic factors. The strength and direction of associations were assessed using a simple and multiple logistic regression,
Results: There were 126 participants in this study. There were 80 undergraduate students and 46 qualified oral healthcare practitioners. The median age of the participants was 23 [IQR: 21 to 32]. Majority of the participants were aware that photography could be used in dentistry, and 87.3% (n=110) took photographs of the dental treatments performed on their patients. 94.4% (n=119) had a social media account, and there was no difference in qualification status and the creation of a social media account (p=0.72). Almost 98% (97.6%, n=122) of participants were aware that they needed informed consent when taking dental photographs, and there was no difference between graduation status and the awareness of needing this informed consent. In addition, the undergraduate students were more likely to cover up their patients identities compared to the graduated oral healthcare practitioners. Only 60.3% of the participants attended an ethical course that addressed issues with social media and digital photography.
Conclusions: Majority of staff and undergraduate students obtained informed consent and maintained patient confidentiality when sharing clinical photographs on social media platforms. However, effort should be made to include good ethical practice regarding clinical photographs in all under and postgraduate curriculums, to eliminate any uncertainty.