Top 5 AI Image Generation Tools for Dental Marketing: PART TWO (2025)
Posted on 6/11/2025 by WEO Media |
In Part 1, we took a close look at ChatGPT-4o’s image generation and Midjourney. Now in Part 2, we’re rounding out the list with three more tools worth your attention: Adobe Firefly, Google Imagen, and Ideogram AI. Whether you're creating patient education visuals or refreshing your brand assets, these platforms bring a mix of style, control, and functionality to the table.
Adobe Firefly
What Firefly Does Best:
Adobe Firefly is Adobe’s suite of generative AI tools that shines in scenarios requiring safe, commercially licensable images and integration with design workflows. Firefly is trained on licensed content (Adobe Stock and public domain material), meaning the images it generates are designed to be worry-free for commercial use – a critical point for businesses concerned about copyright.
Firefly is particularly good at text and graphic styles. For instance, it can generate typographic art (text stylized with textures or shapes) which is useful for making catchy titles or social posts. It also offers features beyond just “text to image,” including generative fill (fill in or expand images), text effects (apply AI-generated styles to letters), and even some vector and 3D material generation.
In a dental marketing context, Firefly might not always match Midjourney’s photorealism, but it excels at creating on-brand graphics (think of making a slogan rendered in toothpaste-like lettering, or a background image with tooth icons).
Pricing and Credits:
Adobe Firefly became generally available as part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud offerings in 2024. Many users will access it through existing Adobe apps:
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If you or your team already have Adobe Creative Cloud (e.g. Photoshop, Illustrator subscription), you automatically have access to Firefly features with your plan. Adobe uses a generative credit system: each image or fill you generate consumes credits. For example, Creative Cloud members might get on the order of 500–1000 credits/month depending on plan (Adobe adjusted these allotments in 2025). This is generally plenty for moderate use, and credits reset monthly.
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Adobe also introduced a standalone Firefly subscription for those who don’t need full Creative Cloud. As of mid-2025, the Firefly Standard plan costs about $9.99/month (early access pricing) and includes 2,000 generative credits per month. Unused credits don’t roll over, but 2,000 images is a substantial amount for a single practice’s needs.
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Free tier: Anyone can try Firefly with an Adobe ID login. Free Adobe accounts get a limited number of generative credits to experiment (Adobe has provided small free credits – e.g. 25/month for new free users as of 2025). This free level is enough to test the waters (a few prompts or edits each month) but not for regular content creation. |
Importantly, if you exhaust your credits (free or paid), Adobe gives the option to buy extra credits or you may have to wait until the monthly reset. The credit usage is generally 1 credit per image generation (at default settings), so 2,000 credits ≈ 2,000 images. Higher resolution or longer prompts might cost slightly more credits, but typical image generations cost about one credit each.
Ease of Use:
Firefly is built with a user-friendly web interface and also tightly integrated into Adobe’s apps:
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Non-designers can go to the Firefly web app (firefly.adobe.com) and use a simple prompt box, with options for styles and aspect ratios. The UI is visual and straightforward. There are also interactive tools like dragging to extend an image’s borders (generative expand) or painting out an area to replace (generative fill) – all done with clicks.
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For those familiar with Photoshop or Adobe Express, Firefly is integrated there as well. In Photoshop, the Generative Fill tool (powered by Firefly) lets you select an area of a photo (say, a patient’s background) and ask the AI to fill it with something (perhaps “dental office interior” to replace a plain backdrop). In Adobe Express (Adobe’s version of Canva), you can directly generate images or backgrounds using Firefly. This integration means if your dental office marketing person is using Adobe Express for making flyers or Instagram posts, they can generate an image without leaving the app.
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Learning curve: Minimal. Firefly is aimed at broad users, with hints and example prompts built-in. There is no coding or complex setup. The main learning aspect is understanding how to write effective prompts and choosing styles, but Adobe provides templates (like “Product photo of ___, studio lighting, white background” as a starting suggestion) to help guide you. For marketers already familiar with Adobe’s ecosystem, Firefly feels like just another easy feature. |
Dental Office Use Cases:
Adobe Firefly can serve many creative needs for a dental practice, especially when brand consistency and post-production editing are important:
Social Media Content:
Firefly can generate custom images for Facebook or Instagram in the exact dimensions you need (Adobe Express with Firefly helps here). For example, you can quickly create an image of “a cartoon tooth character giving a thumbs-up” to accompany a post about dental tips. Or use its text effects to write “Happy National Dental Hygiene Month” with letters made of shiny teeth or toothpaste. Patient Education Visuals:
Firefly’s image generation can also help produce illustration-style images, such as a diagram of a tooth or a step-by-step on brushing technique. Since it’s Adobe, you could further edit these in Illustrator or Photoshop if needed. Staff Portraits & Office Imagery:
Firefly is great for help with conceptual images. For instance, an image of a generic “team of dentists smiling in a clinic” for a careers page. Adobe tends to avoid known trademark or celebrity likenesses (for legal safety), so the “dentists” it generates will look professional and friendly but not be identifiable. You can also use Generative Fill in Photoshop to enhance real staff photos (e.g., extend the background, change wall color in a headshot, etc.). Branding and Graphic Design:
If you are brainstorming a new logo or a flyer background, Firefly can be a great tool. For example, you could ask it to generate “a seamless pattern of tooth icons in blue and white” to use as a background for web pages or print materials. Or use the text-to-vector feature. Adobe Firefly offers some vector generation capabilities, which can assist with logo and icon ideation, though further refinement in Illustrator may be necessary for production-ready vector graphics. |
One unique Firefly capability is generating images with typography (text in the image) more reliably than others. For instance, you could prompt Firefly to create an image of a dental clinic storefront with the name “Bright Smiles Dental” on the sign, and it has a better chance of rendering the text correctly. This is extremely handy for envisioning signage or branded visuals, tasks other AI generators often mess up.
Free Tier Limits:
As mentioned, Firefly’s free usage is limited by a small number of generative credits for new users, with the exact amount subject to change as Adobe updates its policies.
After that, you’d have to wait for a monthly refresh (if Adobe provides one) or upgrade to a paid plan. However, Adobe has also been integrating Firefly into the free version of Adobe Express Free, which offers some generative features with certain limits.
For a dental practice wanting to try Firefly without commitment, a good approach is to sign up for a free Adobe account and use Adobe Express (which currently provides an allowance of AI generations). This is enough to see the quality and get a handful of usable images or backgrounds.
Commercial Use & Licensing:
Adobe has made it clear that Firefly-generated content can be used commercially. In fact, a selling point of Firefly is that it’s “designed to be safe for commercial use.”
By training on Adobe Stock and other licensed images, Adobe mitigated the risk of copyrighted material appearing in outputs. According to Adobe’s FAQ, if a Firefly feature is out of beta, its outputs are allowed in commercial projects, but even beta-tagged feature outputs can usually be used commercially unless stated otherwise.
For a dental office, this means you can confidently use Firefly images in ads, on your website, in printed pamphlets, etc., without fearing copyright claims. (Of course, you should still avoid using Firefly to create known logos or real people, which the system generally won’t do anyway due to content safeguards).
Adobe grants users broad rights to use Firefly-generated content, but users should review current Adobe terms for any limitations, especially regarding beta features or commercial use. Adobe Stock images usually require a license purchase unless you have a plan.
Output Quality & Styles:
Firefly produces high-quality images and offers different styles at generation time. You can choose “Photographic” for realistic photos, “Art” for paintings and digital art, “Graphic” for flat illustrations, etc.
Firefly’s photorealism has improved (especially with Firefly 2 model updates in late 2024), but some users find Midjourney still edges it out in ultra-fine realism. That said, Firefly’s results are very good for most marketing needs, and it tends to follow prompts faithfully.
For style variety, Firefly may have slightly fewer exotic art styles than Midjourney’s community-fed variations, but it covers the main ones marketers need.
The consistency and reliability, thanks to Adobe’s content filtering and training set, can actually save time. Straightforward prompts seem to provide more usable results on the first try, instead of weird outputs that miss the mark.
Firefly Example Prompts (Dental Practice):
"Photorealistic image of a dental office reception area with a friendly receptionist and a patient, bright and inviting, modern decor – ideal for a clinic’s Facebook post banner." "3D illustration of a tooth character lifting weights, representing strong teeth, white background, in a playful cartoon style – for an Instagram post about dental health." "Text effect: The words ‘Bright Smile’ written in sparkling white toothpaste, on a transparent background." (Firefly’s text effect tool would handle this prompt within its interface rather than the text-to-image tool, but it’s an example of the creative text-based visuals you can make.)
With prompts like these, a dental marketing professional could generate engaging visuals that tie into their branding and messaging.
 Google Imagen
What Imagen Does Best:
Google Imagen is Google’s advanced text-to-image model, known for photorealistic image generation and excellent understanding of complex prompts. In research benchmarks, Imagen has shown outstanding image quality and prompt fidelity.
It’s very good at translating nuanced descriptions into images with correct details. Imagen (especially the latest Imagen 4 model released in 2025) is generally praised for:
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Photorealism: It can produce images that look like real photographs, with high resolution and fine details. Things like facial features, landscapes, and lighting are handled impressively by Imagen.
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Text Rendering: Like Firefly, Imagen is good at generating legible text within images (e.g., a sign, a poster in the image). Google explicitly improved “text rendering and prompt adherence” in Imagen 4, which means if your prompt says “a poster on the wall that reads Welcome to Our Dental Clinic,” Imagen is more likely to actually include those words, spelling correctly, than earlier AI models.
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Speed: As of Imagen 4, Google also touts near real-time generation for standard resolutions, meaning it’s quite efficient and useful if integrated into apps. |
However, the accessibility of Imagen is a bit different from other models. Google hasn’t released Imagen as a direct-to-consumer web tool; instead, it’s available via:
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Google’s Vertex AI platform (Cloud API): Businesses and developers can use Imagen through Google Cloud’s AI services. This requires some technical setup (Google Cloud account, enabling the API, and possibly coding or using a web interface in Vertex AI Studio). For end users, Google Cloud provides a graphical interface called Vertex AI Studio where you can try prompting Imagen if you have access. This is more geared towards developers or IT professionals rather than everyday marketers, but it’s one way to tap Imagen’s power.
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Workspace & Bard integrations: Google has been incorporating its generative image capabilities into products like Google Slides (with Duet AI in Workspace) and possibly their Bard chatbot (though Bard’s image generation is currently powered by a partnership with Adobe Firefly, interestingly). In Google Slides, enterprise users with the Duet AI add-on can use a “Help me visualize” feature to generate images right inside a slide deck. This feature, however, is primarily available to Google Workspace Enterprise subscribers (as an add-on), which might not be cost-effective for a small dental office unless you already use Google’s enterprise tools. |
Given these access paths, Imagen is best suited for those who need top-tier quality and are willing to handle a bit of tech setup or use third-party apps that incorporate it.
Imagen Pricing:
Google’s Imagen (via Vertex AI) uses a pay-per-use pricing model. There’s no flat monthly fee for unlimited use; instead, you pay for each image (or for the compute time/tokens used to generate it). To give a sense of cost:
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Approximately $0.02–$0.04 per image for typical resolution. Official Google pricing for the Imagen 3 model was around $0.039 per 1024×1024 image (about 4 cents each) with the highest quality model, or about 2 cents with a faster, slightly lower-quality model. Imagen 4’s pricing is similar or a bit higher, but in that ballpark.
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Google often provides a free trial credit for new Cloud users (e.g., $300 credit) which could be used to generate thousands of images. But after the trial or free tier quota, you’d pay as you go. There isn’t a persistent free-tier for continuous use beyond some small monthly credit (as of now, Google hasn’t advertised a free ongoing allowance specifically for generative AI like Imagen).
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For a small business, if you have a low image output need (say 100 images), at |
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$0.04 each that’s only $4 – very affordable. However, the catch is you need to set up billing on Google Cloud (which requires a credit card and some technical know-how to invoke the model). If you have a developer or an IT-savvy person, this could be integrated into your workflow or website. |
If you’re not using Vertex AI directly, but instead using Imagen through a third-party product (for example, a design app or a marketing platform that offers “AI image generation by Google”), the pricing might be baked into that product’s subscription or charged via their own credit system. Always check if the service mentions Google Imagen or Vertex AI as the engine, then you know quality will be high and likely costs reflect usage.
Ease of Use:
On its own, Google Imagen is not as plug-and-play for non-technical users compared to Midjourney or Firefly. Using it via Vertex AI involves:
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Going to Google’s Cloud console, possibly using Vertex AI Studio’s UI to type prompts (which is a fairly simple interface but definitely a more enterprise environment feel).
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Or calling the API from code. Clearly, that’s not ideal for a busy marketing coordinator who just wants an image quickly.
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That said, Google has been improving UI access. If one has the Vertex AI permissions set, the Vertex AI Studio has a “Try image generation” tool where you can enter a prompt and see output right in the browser. It even provides prompt examples and options to edit or upscale images. This is great for testing but still aimed at users already in the Cloud platform.
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For most dental offices, a more likely scenario to use Imagen’s power is through Workspace Duet AI (if they are Google Workspace customers and opt for that add-on) or via a partner application. If, for example, Canva or a similar service were to integrate Imagen, then you’d get its benefits in a user-friendly way – but Canva currently uses alternatives like Stable Diffusion. That said, keep an eye out for any “Powered by Google Imagen” features in creative software. |
If you do use it directly, you’ll find Imagen’s prompt understanding to be excellent. You might get what you want with fewer retries. But because it’s a professional tool, it may lack the community and prompt-sharing that Midjourney’s Discord has, or the templates that Adobe provides.
Dental Office Use Cases:
Assuming you have access, what could you do with Imagen for your dental marketing?
High-end Photo Creation:
Imagen could generate extremely realistic photos of dental tools, office settings, or smiling patients. For instance, “a close-up photograph of a dentist’s hand holding a toothbrush with toothpaste, in sharp focus, with a blurred dental office background” might come out looking like a stock photo shoot. This is useful if you want unique visuals that don’t look “AI-made” at all. Advertising and Print:
If you need very high-resolution images for print materials (brochures, billboards), Imagen (via Vertex AI) allows you to upscale or specify resolutions. Its outputs could potentially be upscaled to 4K or higher with clarity. Google’s tools include upscaling models, so you could generate at 1024px and upscale 4x to ~4096px for print. Complex Scene Generation:
Let’s say you want an image illustrating a concept like “dental technology of the future” – a prompt like “futuristic dental clinic, with robotic assistant, patient in an advanced chair, glowing screens – photorealistic” would be quite complex. Imagen’s strength in prompt adherence means it’s likely to place those elements (robot, screens, patient) more correctly than some other models. Consistent Style Branding:
Using Vertex AI, advanced users can even fine-tune models or use prompt techniques to get a series of images in a similar style (for example, all your images having a certain color tone or illustration style). While Midjourney and others can do this too, if you have the resources, Google’s ecosystem might allow training custom model aspects (though that’s more in the realm of larger businesses). Internal/Enterprise Uses:
Outside of pure marketing, if a dental chain has a development team, they could integrate Imagen to generate on-the-fly images (like custom graphics for patient education apps or AI-generated visuals in presentations). This is beyond a typical small office’s needs, but it shows the flexibility if needed. |
For a small dental office marketing professional, using Google Imagen directly might be rare unless they are particularly tech-forward. But knowing it exists is useful: if you find your current tools aren’t giving you the quality you want, you might ask a tech consultant or savvy friend to help you experiment with Imagen for those top-quality shots.
Free Tier Availability:
There isn’t a simple “Google Imagen free” button to press. However, Google Cloud often provides free trial credits (as mentioned, new accounts get $300 which can be used on any Cloud service including Imagen). Additionally, Google sometimes has promotional free allowances for AI (for example, some Vertex AI features have small monthly free quotas).
As of mid-2025, image generation might not have a permanent free tier, but that could change. If your office is part of an educational institution or has Google for Education, note that these advanced AI features might not be enabled or could be limited in those accounts.
Commercial Use & Licensing:
If you generate an image with Google Imagen (through their API or tools), you have the rights to use it in your projects under Google Cloud’s terms of service. Google’s policy is generally that you own the output you create, similar to other AI providers, but you must comply with their content guidelines (no disallowed content, etc.).
There isn’t an explicit statement from Google like OpenAI’s, but the understanding in the industry is that outputs are yours to use. For example, Google’s terms for generative AI (as of their announcements) allow commercial use of the output with no royalties.
Of course, if you’re using the feature inside Google Slides or Bard, check the Google Workspace or Bard terms. Typically they also say the user content is owned by the user.
In short, a dental practice can commercially use images generated via Google’s AI, as long as they obtained them through proper access (licensed account, paid API usage, etc.). And since Imagen is trained on Google-curated data, the risk of accidentally using copyrighted material is low.
One thing to be mindful of: if you generate very sensitive imagery (like a known person’s face or a real dental product brand), Google’s AI likely won’t produce trademarked logos or real people clearly. Its safety filters would prevent it. This protects you from inadvertently infringing on copyright.
 Output Quality & Style Options:
Imagen can produce photorealistic images, illustrations, and even some stylized art, but it may not have as many crazy art styles out-of-the-box as something like Midjourney which learns from community prompts. Imagen’s strength is versatility with accuracy – you describe it, it tries to do it exactly.
If you want to emulate a style (say “in the style of Picasso” or “like a Disney cartoon”), the model can attempt it, though Google likely has some restrictions on explicit style mimicry of living artists for ethical reasons.
Google has two major model versions under the Imagen family:
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A “fast” model for quick drafts (lower cost, slightly less detail).
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A “high-quality” model for the best results. |
Overall, you can expect crisp results, very realistic human faces (with the usual slight AI quirks occasionally in hands, etc., though greatly improved).
Multilingual prompts are also a feature in Imagen 4. You could write your prompt in Spanish or another language and it would still work. This might be useful if your marketing team or audience is multilingual.
In terms of resolution, Imagen supports up to 1024×1024 natively, and Google provides upscaling to larger sizes. The style consistency (if you want a series of images all looking like part of one set) might require some prompt engineering, but because you can seed the model or give reference images in some advanced Vertex AI workflows, it’s achievable.
Imagen Example Prompts (Dental Practice):
“A professional photograph of a dentist examining a patient’s teeth, both wearing protective gear, clinic background, high resolution, extremely detailed.”
(This should yield a realistic clinic scene useful for a brochure or website hero, without needing a photoshoot). “Isometric illustration of a dental clinic floor plan with patients and dentists, in a clean vector art style.”
(Imagen can generate illustrations too. This could produce a unique graphic for explaining clinic layout or processes, which you could refine further). “Close-up macro shot of a shiny white tooth with mint leaves around it, concept art, studio lighting, on a mint-green background.”
(This creative shot could be used for an ad visual linking fresh breath to dental health).
Remember, accessing Imagen might require a bit more work, but the outputs from these prompts would likely be top-notch in clarity and detail, giving your dental marketing materials a distinctive edge.
 Ideogram AI
What Ideogram Does Best:
Ideogram AI is a newer player (launched in late 2023) with a special talent: creating images with integrated text and typography.
If you’ve ever tried other generators, you might notice they struggle to produce readable text (like a sign, logo text, or any letters). Ideogram was built specifically to address this.
It excels at making images that contain text — for example, a billboard in the image can have a proper slogan on it, or a birthday cake image could have “Happy Birthday” written in icing that is actually legible. This makes Ideogram extremely useful for marketing graphics where you often want text as part of the image design.
Beyond that unique edge, Ideogram is a capable image generator for general purposes too:
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It can produce photorealistic images, illustrations, and art similar to other models (its quality is comparable to Stable Diffusion 1.5/2.0 levels with enhancements).
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It has a community aspect: an online gallery where users can see each other’s creations. This is great for inspiration and prompt ideas, much like Midjourney’s community.
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It provides various aspect ratios and batch generation options, and even some simple editing tools (like background removal, canvas for outpainting) integrated in its site. |
In summary, Ideogram’s best use case is when you need AI-generated images that include text (think: a social media quote image, a stylized clinic name, a signboard in a scene) or when you want a quick, free tool for standard image gen tasks with a user-friendly approach.
Pricing Tiers:
Ideogram offers both free use and paid subscriptions, making it accessible to start and scalable if you need more:
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Free Plan: By just signing up on ideogram.ai, you get 10 credits per week on the free tier. Each credit lets you generate one batch of up to 4 images. So that’s up to 40 images per week at no cost. This is fairly generous compared to other free offerings.
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Paid Plans: As of 2025, Ideogram has introduced paid plans with increased limits and features:
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Basic – $8/month: ~400 priority generations per month (fast queue) which can yield up to 3,200 images, plus 100 slow generations per day (effectively almost unlimited if you use the slow queue). This plan also allows things like faster generation, private generations, and image uploading for prompts.
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Plus – $20/month: ~1,000 priority gens (up to 8,000 images) monthly, and unlimited slow generations. Faster speeds and more concurrent jobs (you can run 2 prompts at once vs 1 on Basic).
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Pro – $60/month: 3,500 priority (≈28k images), unlimited slow, and even more concurrency (8 at once) – overkill for most, but available.
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Team – $30/month per user (min 2 users): designed for teams with shared billing, each getting 1,500 priority (≈12k images) and unlimited slow. |
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The free plan runs on a “slow” queue (jobs take a bit longer, maybe 30-60 seconds each). Paid plans give “priority” credits for near-instant generation. They also let you keep your images private (free users’ creations show up in the public gallery by default).
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Credits Top-Up: If you somehow need more than provided, Ideogram lets you buy extra priority credits at $4 per 100 credits – but with thousands included in plans, that’s rarely needed for small users. |
For an individual dental marketer, the Basic $8 plan is a great value if you start using Ideogram a lot, as it allows plenty of images and faster turnaround. Otherwise, the free tier might suffice for occasional needs (40 images a week can cover a few social posts).
Ease of Use:
Ideogram is designed to be simple and social:
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No installs, the interface has a prompt box and options for aspect ratio (square, landscape, portrait, etc.), and a gallery of recent popular prompts if you want to explore.
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Simplicity: To generate, you type your prompt and hit create. It typically gives 4 variations per credit. You can then click an image to upscale it or get variations of that particular one.
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Dedicated Prompt Syntax for Text: For example, you can write a prompt like: text:"Happy Teeth" on a billboard, city background and it will know to put the words “Happy Teeth” into the image as text. This is intuitive and documented in their prompt guide.
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Onboarding: Very easy. If you know how to use a search engine, you can use Ideogram. There’s no code or external tool (unlike Midjourney’s Discord). The site also has a FAQ and prompt tips built-in, plus you can see prompts others used (unless they hide them) which is educational.
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Community & Learning: The public gallery means you can scroll and see, for instance, someone might have generated a “Dental Clinic Logo in modern style” – you can see the exact prompt they used and the result. This helps you learn how to phrase your own requests. There’s also a Discord and social media presence for Ideogram, but you are not required to engage with those. |
One thing to note: Ideogram, being relatively new, might still be improving its AI model. Sometimes the image quality is excellent, other times slightly less detailed than other apps when it comes to complex scenes. But for most marketing uses, it’s more than good enough, especially with its unique advantage with text.
Dental Office Use Cases:
A dental practice can use Ideogram in various creative ways to play to its strengths:
Creating Branded Graphics with Text:
Suppose you want an image of a tooth character holding a banner that says “Welcome to Bright Smiles Dental”. Ideogram can generate that with the text on the banner. This is perfect for any graphic where your clinic name or a tagline needs to appear inside an image. Social Media Quote Cards:
Visually appealing dental quotes or tips like “Floss like a boss!” could be rendered in a stylized typography with floss graphics around it. You provide the phrase as text: "Floss like a boss!" in the prompt and describe the style (e.g. “letters made of dental floss, on a clean white background, with sparkles”). Logos, Signs, and Office Mockups:
Want to visualize how your new logo or clinic sign might look? You could prompt: “Logo concept for a dental office, text: Bright Smile, with a tooth icon, in flat minimalist style.” For a sign you ask for something like: “A storefront of a dental clinic with a sign that says Bright Smile Dentistry, modern font, daytime”. Ideogram will likely place those exact words on the sign. While it may not be your final design, it can help conceptualize things. Patient Education Materials:
If you need to label parts of an image (like parts of a tooth), Ideogram could generate an image with the labels embedded. For example: “Diagram of a tooth with labels: Enamel, Dentin, Pulp.” Even if not perfect, it’s a good starting point that you can edit. Print & Merch:
Because of the text ability, you could create graphics for T-shirts, mugs, posters that include your slogan or message. For instance, generate an image of a tooth doing a thumbs up with “#1 Dentist” written below – good for a fun giveaway t-shirt design. Since Ideogram outputs are yours to use, you can print them no problem. |
Free Tier Limits:
40 images/week could cover, say, 3-5 decent posts or graphic tasks per week. If you plan your prompts efficiently (each credit gives 4 variants), you can use one credit to get four options and likely one will be good.
Keep in mind the weekly reset (every Saturday UTC). If you have an upcoming campaign, you could schedule your usage to get some images, then after reset get more. If you hit the limit, you either wait or subscribe.
Also, free users are on the slower queue, meaning during peak times you might wait a minute or two for an image. It’s not bad, but paid users get near instant results in comparison.
Commercial Use & Licensing:
Ideogram’s policy is very user-friendly: you have full rights to your generated images.
They explicitly state they do not claim ownership of images you create, and do not restrict your usage of them. So you can commercially use, modify, distribute the images as you see fit.
Anything you make on Ideogram, you can put on your website, in ads, etc., with no attribution needed and no license fees. Of course, you must still follow their terms (don’t generate unlawful content, etc.), but for normal marketing images this is not an issue.
One advantage here: even the free tier gives commercial rights (unlike some tools that require a subscription for commercial use). This means a small office with zero budget can legitimately use Ideogram’s free outputs in their marketing, which is a big plus.
Output Quality & Style Options:
Ideogram offers various models and styles:
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It has a default model that covers general purposes. Additionally, there might be model versions like “v2” etc. (They sometimes update their model; as of early 2024 they introduced Ideogram v2 with quality improvements).
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You can guide style with normal prompt language (e.g. “digital art”, “oil painting”, “3D render”, “flat icon”, etc. all work).
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The text support is the standout style – you can literally specify fonts or styles for text (e.g. “text: Smile – font looks like toothpaste lettering, 3D”). It might not always nail custom fonts, but it tries.
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If comparing raw image fidelity, some photorealistic outputs from Ideogram might be just a tiny bit less detailed or artistic than Midjourney’s best. But often you can hardly tell, and Ideogram is improving rapidly. For marketing use (web resolutions, small prints), it’s more than sufficient.
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Ideogram also allows negative prompts (telling it what not to do) and seeds (for result reproducibility), which advanced users appreciate for controlling outputs. For instance, if it keeps giving you an unwanted element, you can negative prompt it (e.g. “no text” if somehow text appears where you don’t want it).
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Upscaling: After generating, you can upscale an image for higher resolution within Ideogram (especially if on paid plan with priority). This is useful if you want to print the image or need it for high-res contexts. |
Ideogram Example Prompts (Dental Practice):
“Happy cartoon tooth holding a sign that says ‘Welcome Patients!’ in bold friendly letters. Colorful, kid-friendly illustration.”
(Ideogram will ensure the sign actually reads Welcome Patients! which you could print as a poster or use on social media to greet new patients). “Modern logo concept: text: Bright Smile Dental, with a minimalist tooth icon above the text, blue and white colors, flat design.”
(This will generate the words Bright Smile Dental with various font and icon styles integrated. You might get ideas for your branding or even use a variation for a flyer header). “Image of a storefront: A dental clinic exterior with a sign that says ‘Smith Dental Clinic’, and a tooth logo on the window, daytime.”
(Great to visualize signage or for a website section that lists your locations. It shows how your clinic name would look on a facade in a photorealistic way). “Quote image: text:‘Floss like a boss!’ written in floss shaped letters around a cartoon tooth character, on a transparent background.”
(This could produce a fun graphic for a Facebook or Instagram post, correctly spelled of course).
In each of these, Ideogram’s ability to handle the exact text is what sets it apart. Marketing content often combines text and imagery, and Ideogram delivers both.
 Conclusion: AI Image Generation
For a dental practice in 2025, AI image generators can be a game-changer for marketing.
Key Takeaways for Implementation Success
Midjourney offers unparalleled artistry and realism if you need stunning visuals and are willing to invest a bit (navigate Discord).
ChatGPT’s 4o Image Generation makes generating images as easy as having a chat. Perfect for rapid content creation and brainstorming, all for a reasonable flat fee.
Adobe Firefly provides a well-rounded, brand-safe solution especially if you’re already in the Adobe ecosystem, with strong integration for creating cohesive marketing materials.
Google Imagen represents the cutting edge of quality and fidelity. It’s there for those who need the best photorealism and have the means to access it, though it’s less plug-and-play for small teams.
Ideogram AI fills a crucial niche by handling text-in-image generation, empowering you to make graphics that previously would’ve required a graphic designer’s touch.
Each tool has its strengths: Midjourney for pure visual wow-factor, Firefly for safe commercial use and integration, Imagen for top-tier realism (if accessible), ChatGPT for ease and intelligent interaction, and Ideogram for text and social-media-ready content.
The pricing ranges from free (with limits) to affordable subscriptions or pay-per-use, meaning there’s likely an option that fits your budget. All listed tools permit commercial use of outputs – a must for your practice’s marketing.
When choosing, consider:
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What content do you need most? If it’s a lot of realistic, photography-like images, Midjourney or ChatGPT might give great, quick results. For content with slogans or labels, Ideogram might save you hours of editing.
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Your design workflow: If you’re comfortable in Photoshop or Express, Firefly will slot right in. If you prefer a standalone simple workflow, ChatGPT or Ideogram are very straightforward.
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Volume and speed: Need dozens of images fast? ChatGPT (no per-image cost) or Midjourney’s unlimited plan could be beneficial. Just a few a week? Maybe the free tiers of Ideogram or Bing suffice for now.
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Collaboration: If you have a team collaborating on ideas, Midjourney’s Discord or Ideogram’s gallery can be fun communal spaces to explore designs. |
Using AI for Dental Marketing
By leveraging one or a combination of these AI tools, a dental office’s marketing team can produce high-quality, customized visuals in-house, with minimal need for outsourcing or advanced design tools. This means quicker turnaround on campaigns, more engaging social media content, and potentially cost savings.
Finally, always remember to review the outputs with a critical eye. Ensure they align with your branding and that any anatomic details (if used educationally) are correct.
These tools, while powerful, aren’t perfect. But with a bit of human guidance, they can bolster your creative capabilities tremendously.
Happy generating!
Need Help With Your Marketing?
Dental marketing can be a lot. As evidenced by this lengthy two-part article, even one facet requires a certain level of knowledge, skill, and determination. That’s where we come in.
Since 2009, WEO Media has helped hundreds, if not thousands, of dentists across North America take control of their marketing and grow their practice. If you’d like to learn how we could help yours, simply call (888) 246-6906
or schedule your complimentary consultation
with one of our senior marketing consultants today! |
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