Teledentistry

Teledentistry is the use of communication technology, including audio and video interaction, to remotely provide dental or oral health care services such as consultation, diagnosis, and patient education, according to the American Teledentistry Association.

How Teledentistry Works #

Through teledentistry, dentists can meet their patients virtually in order to evaluate their health conditions, present treatment plans, offer dental education, prescribe medications, and meet for pre-op and post-op appointments.

This assures that the patient can see their dentist in a timely manner without needing to physically be in the office.

Different Ways In Teledentistry #

According to the American Dental Association, Teledentistry is usually provided in four different ways:

Live video (synchronous) #

This involves live, two-way interaction between a patient and their dental health expert via video call.

Store and forward (asynchronous) #

This involves the transfer of recorded health information like photographs, x-rays, and digital impressions to providers via a secured communication channel.

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) #

This form of monitoring collects your personal dental health information at one location and securely transmits it electronically to a practitioner at another location, for use in future dental care.

Mobile health (mHealth) #

This form of teledentistry uses mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, computers, and personal digital assistants to provide dental health education to the public.

In recent history, teledentistry has largely been used as a way that patients can straighten their teeth without ever leaving home.

According to the American Teledentistry Association, clear aligner treatment via teledentistry is a low-risk and effective method of teeth straightening that lowers treatment costs and provides greater access to care.

The Association also states that teledentistry can be used to establish a valid patient-doctor relationship from which professionally-responsible teleorthodontic treatment can proceed.

Benefits #

• Teledentistry can provide easier, cheaper and less intimidating way to connect with dentistry and dental health care.

• Teledentistry can also be used to assist general dentists with specialty work and improve services to underserved populations such as in rural areas or less developed areas.

• It is also improving the patient awareness about the dental health care

Help within the dental community #

• Another method is the Remote Monitoring Method in which dentists communicate with each other through the use of radiographs and other data like the patient’s clinical findings, photographs, test results and case history.

• The patient is not present in this method of teleconsultation.

• Disadvantages of this can include misinterpretation of messages, privacy issues and insufficient training of the professionals