It may become difficult to manage your busy schedule to make time for dental checkups.
It can become more challenging if you stay in a remote area. However, with technological advancement, oral healthcare has become widely accessible to people, even in the most distant corner of the country.
The rapid evolution in healthcare technology has resulted in a constant change in dentistry. This has led to the emergence of teledentistry. It enables patients to seek advice from dental care providers via virtual communication instead of physical contact.
With the advent of effective cloud-based dental software, teledentistry has become a popular subdivision of telehealth by ensuring optimal digital oral care solutions.
There are several “good,” “bad,” and “ugly” aspects of teledentistry. But before that, let’s see what it is.
Teledentistry: What is it Actually?
Teledentistry is the integral model of oral healthcare solutions that “provides effective oral care services to a patient when their current physical location is far away from the location of the dentist or the oral healthcare practitioner looking after the delivery of those services,” says the ADA or the American Dental Association.
Teledentistry is not a service but a way of delivering the best dental care services via the virtual form.
Teledentistry: Knowing the “Good!”
When a distant location becomes an issue, you’ll find a virtual dentist to be of immense help. For instance, if you have any query related to an oral health issue, you would get quick answers that would save a lot of your time which otherwise would’ve been wasted over a scheduled face-to-face appointment.
Moreover, teledentistry helps your dentist keep you under supervision and monitoring after you complete any oral treatment procedure. It also benefits you from having a second opinion on cosmetic dentistry or planned dental work.
The cloud-based dental software can also be used as an effective public health tool to connect the doctors with patients for oral cancer screening or connect the dentist to attend an in-school health program.
Teledentistry: Knowing the “Bad!”
Like many telehealth solutions, teledentistry also comes with certain limitations. It can be challenging for any dentist to identify the reason behind the toothache pain without performing any physical examination.
A dentist named Dr. Lawlor says that “even with the X-Ray reports and the patient right at my clinic, I can end up facing difficulty in the diagnosis in some cases.” Although digital images can be helpful, X-ray reports and tactile feedback are highly beneficial for diagnosis.
Several patients keep unjust expectations of what they can achieve from teledentistry, and they must know that every oral condition cannot be diagnosed via the digital form of communication.
Another bad aspect of teledentistry is that no sufficient treatment is achievable via a teledentistry appointment, says Dr. Lawlor.
Teledentistry: Knowing the “Ugly!”
It has been discovered that some teledentistry companies and software providers work ethically and follow the norms of the respective dental association.
However, others avoid laws and ethics for maximizing their profits via unlicensed dentistry practice. This has led to the rise of apparent conflicts around the dental world.
Some of these companies are now being summoned to answer the questions associated with ethical breaches, while some face lawsuits. The ideal solution would be to implement the same expectations and standards on teledentistry that apply to brick-and-mortar dental clinics.
Closing Thoughts
When it comes to the good and bad of teledentistry, the good always outweighs the bad. Teledentistry is the future of the dental care solution in this era of rapid digitization.
With the accessibility of oral care solutions to the rural-most and remotest areas of the country, more and more people are now becoming concerned about their oral healthcare.
Given the bad and ugly aspects of teledentistry, the industry has to come up with professional supervision and regulation to wipe off the loopholes and downsides.