In this instructional video Dr. Katie To walks two new patients, Carson and Rex, through the complete intraoral photography workflow used during a first‑visit dental exam. She begins by adjusting the dental chair to her height, then places cheek retractors on both sides of the mouth and guides the patients to bite, open, and hold specific positions. Detailed cues are given for tongue placement (lifting to the roof, touching the front teeth, and extending outward while saying “Ah”) and for head/chin orientation to capture the full upper and lower arches. Dr. To demonstrates the use of a warm mirror to improve visibility, repeatedly adjusts the retractors, and emphasizes patient comfort (closing eyes, breathing). The sequence culminates in capturing comprehensive upper‑arch and lower‑arch photographs with the patient opening as wide as possible, ensuring the entire dentition is visible for the patient’s record.
Chapters
I'm going to go ahead and have you put on this ChapStick. I'm going to lift up your chair here, okay? Bring you up to my height. Alright, Carson, so I'm going to go ahead and place the retractors in on each side, okay? I'm going to have you open. I'm going to place it on each side. Bite down for me and hold. Good job. Alright, Rex. You can go ahead and turn towards me here. Good job. Chin up slightly. Good. I'm just going to readjust these a little bit. Perfect. And then you can close your eyes. There is going to be a big flash here. Good job. Great job. Go ahead and open a little bit for me. Nice. Lift these up a little bit. Good. Just stay right back here. You can close your eyes. Perfect. So I want you to open as big as you can. Lift the tongue, just lift the tongue to the roof. Yes, hold there. Bring the tip of the tongue to the back of the two front teeth. Hold there, open as big as you can. Good job. And now stick your tongue out all the way, open as big as you can, and then say, "Ah." Good. Okay, we're gonna go ahead and place this one on this side now. I'll have you open. And then really relax this side. You don't have to stretch it or anything. I'll have you look forward now more. Turn the head a little bit more and then open again. I'm gonna hold this side. Go ahead and bite down all the way, chin up slightly. Good. You're gonna feel me pulling here. You can close your eyes if you want. Just that one and the other one. Nice. All right, now we're gonna switch sides here. So you're gonna hold this one on this side. Good, and really relax it there, and then there you go. Really relax that side for me. Good, bite down all the way, very good. Mm-hmm. Good, awesome. Relax there, take a breather. Alright, so now I'm going to go ahead and use the retractors again. We're going to bring your chair down. This is going to help both of us out. We're going to do the full upper and lower arches. I want you to open and you'll place it on each side and we're going to bring it up all the way there. You're going to grab those and keep them nice and straight. Turn towards me here. Good. All right, I have the warm mirror here. I want you to open as big as you can. Lift the chin a little bit for me. I want these to be lifted up. Good. Lift them up a little bit more. Turn towards— yep. And then open super big, super big, open big, nice, great job, awesome job. I'm gonna go to the bottom, I'm gonna take these out, I'm gonna lean it back. You can lay your head all the way back there, Carson. Turn towards me one more time, open again, good. All right, Carson, now we're gonna bring them down, turn towards me again here, lift up the chin Knees down, just pull them back. Good. Try to get this whole lower now. Open as big as you can and keep pulling these down, okay? Nice. Beautiful.
