What is Teledentistry?

Article provide by Francis Dunn, Miami, FL

As more patients prefer meeting their doctors online, teledentistry has become popular in the areas of pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, and oral medicine. Apart from the obvious benefit of teledentistry which involves meeting a dentist from the comfort of your home, teledentistry offers cost savings in the form of consultation and travel costs.

Virtual dentistry has helped to screen, examine, and diagnose patients as well as help with distance education and training. Training programs include in-school programs, rural dental programs, senior center programs, and training for community centers.

School-based dental programs have become popular as they help students learn about dental hygiene, while their school health center can connect a student to a qualified dentist for personal care. Most often smartphones are used to take pictures of student’s mouths and images are then uploaded. The dentist will then meet the student online, during school hours for a diagnosis.

Oral pathology disorders are additionally easily diagnosed using smartphone cameras. Dentists can diagnose potentially malignant oral lesions and evaluate teeth that have sustained a traumatic injury.

Smartphone applications have similarly been successful in providing information to parents on how to check their child’s oral health and what oral habits need to be cultivated.

Teledentistry offers patients and dentists the opportunity to concentrate on patients who need urgent in-person care. Additionally, providing children and adults with information on healthy dental habits will improve dental health in the future. However, the success of Teledentistry rests on the ability of patients accepting and correctly using the available technology.

Francis Dunn is from Miami Florida. Francis William Dunn has spent the last twenty-five years working within the healthcare industry to improve corporate strategy and product development. He is the VP and co-founder of Medsite, Inc., a successful company that was later sold to WebMD. Francis Dunn understands how to be a successful leader and is often called upon for speaking engagements. His expertise in managing enterprise accounts continues to drive overall revenue for past employers.