Chaudhary Farooq Ahmad, Ahmad Basaruddin, Javed Muhammad Qasim, Mustafa Saeed, Fazal Ayesha, Javaid Muhammad Mohsin, Siddiqui Ammar Ahmed, Alam Mohammad Khursheed, Ud Din Shahab
School of Dentistry (SOD), Federal Medical Teaching Institution/PIMS, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
School of Dental Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Malaysia.
Digit Health. 2022 Mar 24;8:20552076221089776. doi: 10.1177/20552076221089776. eCollection 2022 Jan-Dec.
This study aims to describe the perception of dental professionals in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia (SA) towards the practice of teledentistry, its usefulness and challenges.
A cross-sectional study was carried out among 190 dentists from January 2021 to April 2021. The participants were included in the study using snowball sampling method. A 26-item adopted questionnaire was distributed using different social media channels. Chi-square test was used for analysis.
Out of 190 participants, 46.3% were from Pakistan and 53.7% were from SA. The majority of participants in both countries agreed that teledentistry would enhance guidelines and advice (74.2%), improve peer-to-peer interaction (79.5%) and make patient's referrals more efficient (75.8%). For the usefulness, most participants agree that it is economical for the patients (61.1%), improves communication (74.7%), helps in educating the patients (86.3%), avoid unnecessary travel (76.8%), helps monitoring (71.6%), and benefits patients in remote areas (74.7%); however, more Pakistani participants perceived that time spent with the patient would increase compared to SA participants ( < 0.001) and a higher proportion of SA participants believe that it helps in communication and monitoring of patients ( < 0.001) than Pakistani participants. Regarding the challenges in the use of teledentistry, few participants think that it violates the patient's privacy (22.6%) or is difficult to use (14.7%) or have distrust towards the teledentistry equipment (24.2%).
The results indicated a high awareness and a positive attitude towards teledentistry, and its adaptation in their dental practice in both countries. However, limited infrastructure, set-up cost, and information technology (IT) literacy are the main challenges in integrating teledentistry which can be overcome by strategic government initiatives, policies, and programs.
本研究旨在描述巴基斯坦和沙特阿拉伯的牙科专业人员对远程牙科实践的看法、其有用性和挑战。
2021年1月至2021年4月对190名牙医进行了一项横断面研究。采用雪球抽样法纳入研究参与者。通过不同社交媒体渠道分发一份采用的26项问卷。使用卡方检验进行分析。
190名参与者中，46.3%来自巴基斯坦，53.7%来自沙特阿拉伯。两国的大多数参与者都认为远程牙科将加强指导方针和建议（74.2%）、改善同行间互动（79.5%）并使患者转诊更高效（75.8%）。关于有用性，大多数参与者认为它对患者来说经济实惠（61.1%）、改善沟通（74.7%）、有助于患者教育（86.3%）、避免不必要的出行（76.8%）、有助于监测（71.6%）以及使偏远地区的患者受益（74.7%）；然而，与沙特阿拉伯参与者相比，更多巴基斯坦参与者认为与患者相处的时间会增加（<0.001），并且沙特阿拉伯参与者中认为它有助于患者沟通和监测的比例高于巴基斯坦参与者（<0.001）。关于使用远程牙科的挑战，很少有参与者认为它侵犯患者隐私（22.6%）或难以使用（14.7%）或对远程牙科设备不信任（24.2%）。
结果表明对远程牙科有较高的认识和积极态度，并且两国在牙科实践中都在采用它。然而，基础设施有限、设置成本和信息技术素养是整合远程牙科的主要挑战，可通过政府的战略举措、政策和计划来克服。
