Department of Orofacial Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of California San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Avenue, S- 722, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA.
BMC Oral Health. 2022 Mar 27;22(1):92. doi: 10.1186/s12903-022-02133-1.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has had devastating effect on access to care in many specialties and dental services including oral medicine. Following the shelter-in-place orders in March 2020, we implemented Tele(oral)medicine practices for the diagnosis and management of some oral medicine conditions.
To assess the role of telemedicine visits with respect to managing pain among patients affected by oral diseases.
A retrospective chart review for all the new patients seen at their first visit via telemedicine between April 2020 and December 2020. The patient-reported pain score was recorded at each visit using a 0-10 scale. Differences in oral pain from the first fist to the follow-up visit of the patients were evaluated using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
A total of 137 new patients were included with a median age of 56 years. If seen in person, patients would have travelled a median distance of 65 miles. The most common oral conditions seen were reactive/inflammatory lesions. There was a 3-point median pain reduction from the first video visit to the first follow-up (p < 0.05) and a self-reported 65% median improvement of oral symptoms.
Tele(oral)medicine was an effective method for symptoms management of oral medicine conditions.
严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 对许多专业和牙科服务（包括口腔医学）的医疗服务的获取产生了毁灭性的影响。2020 年 3 月实施就地避难令后，我们为一些口腔医学疾病的诊断和管理实施了远程（口腔）医学实践。
评估远程医疗访问在管理口腔疾病患者疼痛方面的作用。
对 2020 年 4 月至 12 月期间通过远程医疗首次就诊的所有新患者进行回顾性图表审查。每位患者在每次就诊时使用 0-10 分制记录自述疼痛评分。使用 Wilcoxon 符号秩检验评估患者首次就诊和随访时口腔疼痛的差异。
共纳入 137 名新患者，中位年龄为 56 岁。如果亲自就诊，患者的平均旅行距离为 65 英里。最常见的口腔疾病是反应性/炎症性病变。从第一次视频就诊到第一次随访，疼痛中位数降低了 3 分（p<0.05），患者自述口腔症状的改善中位数为 65%。
远程（口腔）医学是管理口腔医学疾病症状的有效方法。
