Teledentistry Approaches for Dental Assessments and Consultation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Introduction

COVID-19 pandemic shows the importance of teledentistry usage to cope with such conditions and to improved the patient access and quality of care. Since dental treatments are highly infectious procedures due to the close proximity to patients required and the extended exposure to aerosols (including water from high- and low-speed handpieces and patients’ saliva and blood). Viruses such as COVID- 19 could be transmitted through these aerosols. As a result dental treatments were limited to emergency only, according to the guidance of the Ministry of Health. This limitation increases the need for means of communication between dental practitioners and patients in order to follow up and provide consultation without direct contact. This could be provided by using telemedicine.

Methods

However, the evidence assessing the effectiveness of this intervention is scars. Therefore, The aim of this study is to conduct mixed method research (quantitative and qualitative) to measure the effectiveness of teledentistry usage during the COVID-19 pandemic. To provide an in-depth understanding of the use of teledentistry in assessing urgent dental cases and providing consultations.

Results

The sample size for the quantitative part of the study (questionnaire) will include Patients that contacts the virtual clinic and attended to their appointments between 28/4/20 and 30/6/20 (the total will be 125 patients), While the sample for the qualitative part will be dentists who used to work in the call center listed in the virtual clinic database.

Conclusion

The outcome of the study is to provide an overview of the use of teledentistry in assessing urgent dental cases and providing consultations and patients satisfaction of the provided service.

Keywords:

• teledentistry
• COVID-19
• dental assessment
• pandemic
• virtual clinic

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.