Health Informatics Journal · Published 2025-10-01 · DOI 10.1177/14604582251410795
Objective . This cross-sectional study compared the color accuracy and image quality of intraoral photographs taken with DSLR cameras, smartphones, and smartphones with auxiliary lighting. Methods . Forty participants had five images captured per device, yielding 600 images. Image quality was evaluated using Blind/Referenceless Image Spatial Quality Evaluator (BRISQUE) via No-Reference Matrix (NRM), while experts provided qualitative evaluations. Results . Smartphones achieved the highest average NRM score (53.14 ± 28.2), followed by smartphones with auxiliary lighting (47.62 ± 1.9) and DSLR cameras (45.32 ± 2.2), with no significant difference between DSLR cameras and smartphones with auxiliary lighting (p = 0.34). Color accuracy (ΔE) was closest between DSLR cameras and smartphones with auxiliary lighting (4.89 ± 2.47), while other pairs showed higher differences. These two also showed comparable color consistency (p = 0.63 and 0.57 for a; b values), although smartphones produced brighter images ( L = 50.56 ± 4.82 vs. 31.84 ± 4.82). Experts preferred DSLR images for caries diagnosis and presentation (96.7% preference), but found smartphone images with auxiliary lighting clinically acceptable. Conclusion . While DSLR cameras delivered superior image quality, smartphones with auxiliary lighting demonstrated comparable diagnostic performance as a practical, low-cost alternative in resource-limited settings. Further validation with newer devices is recommended.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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