What's an Intraoral Camera? The short answer is that an intraoral camera is a tool your dentist uses to examine your mouth in as detailed a way as possible. The dental equipment, which may look like an oversized pen, has a camera that takes high-resolution footage or images of a patient’s mouth and shows the visuals real-time on a monitor—they’re like high-tech versions of the hand mirrors you see in your dentist’s practice.

That way patients can see for themselves what is going on with their teeth and so can make informed decisions about what to do. An intraoral camera is a camera which is designed to be used in the mouth for the purpose of taking video or still photography. These cameras are most commonly used in dental offices, although patients can also use them at home to monitor dental health or to satisfy curiosity about what the inside of the mouth looks like. Several firms specialize in producing intraoral cameras and accessories, and others make adapters which can be used with conventional cameras so that they can be used in the mouth.

A general dentist might use an intraoral camera to take images of a tooth or area of the jaw which requires oral surgery so that a maxillofacial surgeon can examine the information before he or she meets the patient to get an idea of the kind of surgery which might be required.

The intraoral camera enlarges the inside of the teeth to more than 40 times their actual size on a full color screen display. By zooming in on problem areas in affecting the teeth, dentists are capable of seeing much more than they could with the human eye alone. Often, dentists find the beginnings of periodontal disease or tooth decay that would have otherwise gone undetected if examined without the intraoral camera.

Images taken by an intraoral camera can also be reviewed later, which can be useful for a dentist who feels a nagging suspicion that something is not quite right in the mouth of a patient. The intraoral camera can also be used to document procedures for legal and educational reasons, and to create projections of a patient's mouth which can be used in medical schools for the purpose of educating future dentists about various issues which pertain to oral health.

Going to the dentist means seeing, hearing about, and experiencing a variety of tools that are unfamiliar to most patients. But now it is different, the intraoral camera will cause you no pain, and you may even have fun during your exam! If you haven’t been examined with one and are wondering just what is an intraoral camera, scroll down to learn how it can benefit you. The intraoral camera makes going to the dentist easier for both the patient and the dental health provider.