da Costa Christine Böhm, Peralta Felipe da Silva, Ferreira de Mello Ana Lúcia Schaefer
Post Graduation Program in Dentistry, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil.
Telemed J E Health. 2020 Jul;26(7):945-954. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2019.0122. Epub 2019 Oct 1.
There are inequities in the provision of oral health care, and a large proportion of the population face challenges in accessing public dental health care options. Teledentistry (TD), a new branch of telemedicine dedicated to dentistry, is a potential approach that can be used to overcome these challenges. Therefore, the purpose of this integrative review was to collect information regarding the inclusion of the application of TD tools in the public dental health services. Five electronic databases (PubMed/Medline, Virtual Health Library, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science) were searched for relevant articles if they reported on original data related to the use of TD in public dental health services. Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria and were, consequently, included in the review. Our key findings indicated that TD can be used for training and continuing education of professionals, for remote patient care, to exchange information among health professionals, and orientation. It increases the access to dental care and enables general practitioners to interact with specialties. The benefits include cost-effective health equity services, improve dental knowledge, and reduce consultation waiting time. However, despite the advances made with the use of this technology, there are still some obstacles to overcome, such as limited infrastructure, low levels of motivation and the lack of compliance, professional resistance, and legal and security issues. TD may be very a useful tool for dental public health increasing the quality of the care by improving access, professional education, and patient satisfaction.
口腔卫生保健的提供存在不平等现象,很大一部分人口在获得公共牙科保健选择方面面临挑战。远程牙科(TD)是远程医疗中专门针对牙科的一个新分支,是一种可用于克服这些挑战的潜在方法。因此,本综合综述的目的是收集有关在公共牙科保健服务中纳入TD工具应用的信息。如果相关文章报道了与TD在公共牙科保健服务中的使用相关的原始数据,则在五个电子数据库(PubMed/Medline、虚拟健康图书馆、CINAHL、Scopus和科学网)中搜索这些文章。24项研究符合纳入标准,因此被纳入综述。我们的主要发现表明,TD可用于专业人员的培训和继续教育、远程患者护理、卫生专业人员之间的信息交流以及指导。它增加了获得牙科护理的机会,并使全科医生能够与专科医生互动。其好处包括具有成本效益的卫生公平服务、提高牙科知识以及减少咨询等待时间。然而,尽管在使用这项技术方面取得了进展,但仍有一些障碍需要克服,例如基础设施有限、积极性和依从性水平低、专业人员抵制以及法律和安全问题。TD可能是牙科公共卫生的一个非常有用的工具,通过改善获得护理的机会、专业教育和患者满意度来提高护理质量。