What photos should I send to a dental lab?

For single-unit anterior restorations, shade accuracy lives or dies on the photo set. A retracted frontal under natural or color-corrected operatory light, with a physical shade tab held at the cervical of the adjacent tooth, gives the ceramist a calibrated reference. Flat smartphone flashes wash out translucency gradients, so even a basic ring-light setup yields meaningfully better shade communication. One extra photo at the beginning saves a remake week later.

For implant cases and full-arch reconstructions, the photo requirements expand. A relaxed-lip view shows the rest position of the lip line, which matters for incisal edge placement on the final prosthesis. A full-face smile at natural jaw position lets the ceramist verify midline alignment against the facial axis. For All-on-X or implant-supported bridge work, pair those photos with the CBCT file and the intraoral scan; the photos confirm proportions the scan alone cannot capture.

Prosthodontists running complex anterior cases often add a phonetic reference, either a photo mid-speech or a short video clip, to confirm incisal edge position during function. At Dani Dental, the technician assigned to your case reviews the photo set on intake and flags gaps before fabrication starts, not after the unit comes back for adjustment.