Clinical photography and the dental nurse

Aim

The reader should be able to understand the role of informed consent and confidentiality when taking, storing or transmitting clinical image or video data.

Objectives

GDC development outcome A, C and D

Consent

Taking photographs or video clips has now become part of our way of life because it is so easy to do and most of us are carrying a camera with us as an integral part of our mobile phones. So the temptation is when we see something interesting to take an image or a video clip possibly preceded by the question‘You don’t mind if I just take a photograph of your mouth, do you?’ or ‘Do you mind if I take a video clip of you telling us how you feel now that you have had your implants fitted?’ We have to remember that as soon as an image or video is recorded which involves a human subject it does become part of their clinical record if it’s a patient or their personal data if it is someone else. The image or video clip is therefore subject to the requirements of having obtained appropriate consent and having informed the person about how confidentiality is going to be maintained and how the data is going to be stored, managed and eventually destroyed.