The Changing Public NeedTeledentistry: A Key Component in Access to Care
Introduction
Teledentistry is the use of health information technology and telecommunications for oral care, consultation, education, and public awareness with the broad goal of improving oral health. As with many branches of telemedicine, teledentistry applications have been steadily increasing. Future applications of teledentistry have the possibility of increasing utilization of oral care services, decreasing financial and human costs and improving health outcomes.
Section snippets
Telehealth Defined
Telehealth is the delivery of health care and the exchange of health care information across distances. The prefix ‘tele’ derives from the Greek for ‘at a distance.’ Telehealth encompasses the whole range of medical activities including diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and prevention of disease, continuing education of health care providers and consumers, and research and evaluation. Telehealth is designed to assist with case management and monitoring to improve both management of diseases and
What is Teledentistry?
Teledentistry is the use of information technology and telecommunications for oral care, consultation, education, and public awareness in the same manner as telehealth. Likewise, m-teledentistry is the use of mobile devices like smart phones, electronic health records and portable radiography for the same purposes. Teledentistry is used in generalist and specialty practices, e.g. orthodontics, endodontics, oral surgery, periodontics and dental public health. The greatest value of teledentistry
Scope of Teledentistry
Access to care in remote, rural and underserved areas in the United States is being addressed by the development and implementation of workforce models and new educational programs.1 Social determinants, changing demographics, multiculturalism, geographical location, lack of insurance, and lack of uniform regulations and policies inhibit reliable access to proper screening and treatment of oral disease (See Garcia and Cadoret, Health Disparities and the Multicultural Imperative, this
Education of providers
Technology has made it possible to obtain and then send patient information within seconds, improving access to consultation and care. With this same technology, students and professionals in dental and allied dental programs are learning and developing new methodologies for access and delivery of care in the office, community settings, schools, long-term care facilities and homes. Students can be taught to use smart phones or tablets for photography and electronic health records. Patient data
Technology Used in Teledentistry
A commonality of all teledentistry applications is that a client (e.g. patient, provider or educator) contacts someone with greater expertise in a relevant field, when the parties are separated in space, in time or both. Teledentistry exchanges may be classified based on the type of interaction between the client and the expert, information being transmitted, or communication medium.
The type of interaction is usually classified as either prerecorded (also called store-and-forward or
Evidence Base for Teledentistry
While the body of evidence from teledentistry applications is small, it appears that the ‘Triple Aim’ of health care reform goals: improved care quality and health outcomes, coupled with reduced per-capita costs can be achieved. In fact, the Department of Veterans Affairs has become the nation's leader in telehealth use to achieve these results. Videoconferencing and telecommunications have been used with great success to allow veterans to stay in their local communities or counties for oral
HIPAA Considerations
On January 25, 2013, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published the long awaited final rule that modifies parts of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Passed by Congress in 1996, HIPAA enables workers to transfer and continue health insurance coverage if they lose or change jobs, provides standards for the use of protected health information in electronic health records, and mandates the protection and confidentiality of protected
Benefits and Barriers
Advances in communication technology have increased the potential methods and speed by which oral health professionals and patients can communicate. Expected benefits of such communication improvements in are found in Box 1.
Although telemedicine and teledentistry clearly have a wide range of potential benefits, this methodology for delivery and monitoring care is fraught with obstacles from both patients and professionals. The main obstacles of telemedicine and teledentistry that can be
Teledentistry in the Future
Enormous potential exists to improve health services throughout the world by using information and communication technologies to expand access to primary, secondary and tertiary care, raise quality, increase efficiency and decrease costs. The burden of chronic disease, for example, can be significantly lessened through telemonitoring to decrease dental visits, hospital admissions, hospital stays and costs. Teledentistry based disease-management has also been shown to improve outcomes such as
Conclusions
Teledentistry is one approach to meeting the oral care needs of those who cannot seek care for various reasons and those who have little to no access to care. Currently, teledentistry research centers around pilot projects and short term studies from education, community, school and public health settings. There is very little published evidence regarding the effect of teledentistry on clinical outcomes, utilization and costs. There are no available data on use of teledentistry in the private
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Cited by (96)
Indonesian Dentists’ Perception of the Use of Teledentistry
2022, International Dental JournalCitation Excerpt :Only the dentists’ working experience significantly altered their perception that teledentistry was useful for patients (P = .039). The COVID-19 pandemic has expanded the use of telehealth, a variety of medical activities that are designed to support disease management and increase access to care, with the support of an extensive range of electronic communication technologies.34 Telehealth is also considered a useful and economical system for providing health care to underserved communities.10
Knowledge, Perception, and Experience of Dentists About Teledentistry
2022, International Dental JournalCitation Excerpt :The results of this study suggest that Brazilian dentists are inadequately prepared for implementation of teledentistry, which, in turn, can impair the quality of care provided to patients. Previous studies18,23,25 have suggested that efficiency, improved quality of care, and reduced burden of oral disease were associated with key factors, such as maintenance of electronic health records and referral systems, digitisation of images, and appropriate teleconsultation, diagnosis, and monitoring. A majority of the dentists included in this study preferred using video calls or text messages to carry out digital appointments, and these findings agree with those of previous studies that demonstrated that video conferencing was the preferred method for early diagnosis and assessment of dental caries prevalence.7,8,13,18,19,24,26,27
Teledentistry content in Canadian dental and dental hygiene curricula
2024, Journal of Dental EducationEvaluation of a student telehealth rotation at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine
2024, Journal of Dental Education