Teledentistry in pediatric dentistry: review and presentation of a clinical case.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES Teledentistry is a telematics approach validated in the literature that allows the remote diagnosis and management of various oral health problems, avoiding direct face-to-face contact with the patient. This study aims to present a review of the scientific literature to analyze in which fields of pediatric dentistry teledentistry has found application and with what results;in addition, a case of unconventional oral candidiasis in a child, diagnosed and managed through the use of teledentistry during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in April 2020, is presented. MATERIALS AND METHODS The literature search was performed through PubMed (using keyword and MeSH terms), Scopus and Embase databases, evaluating observational, interventional, case reports and case series studies, published in English between 1999 and 2021 and conducted in children. The clinical case presented was diagnosed and managed through photographs that the pediatric dentist received from the patient's mother via a multi-platform messaging application. Through the same application, the mother was able to provide informed consent to take care of the patient remotely, after acceptance of possible critical issues regarding teledentistry, and receive a prescription for home treatment of oral candidiasis. RESULTS After exclusion of duplicates and articles that did not meet the inclusion criteria, 14 studies were selected. Teledentistry was applied in four different areas oral health promotion, with 2 studies examining smartphone applications to improve home oral hygiene, diagnosis/follow-up/treatment in orthodontics with 4 studies, caries and other hard and soft tissue diseases of the oral cavity with 7 studies, and finally dental traumatology with a single study. With regard to the promotion of oral health, two applications for the improvement of home oral hygiene were examined. They showed promise for motivation and education. In orthodontics, the studies evaluated in this review reported that teledentistry is useful and valuable for follow-up and orthodontic consultations that can be obtained quickly;doubts remain regarding expense, intervention time and operator compensation. In addition, remotely supervised interceptive treatment appears to reduce the severity of malocclusions. About caries and other hard and soft tissue diseases of the oral cavity, results indicate that teledentistry can reduce waiting lists and the need for face-to-face examinations. Teledentistry is considered valid, efficient and potentially cost-effective for screening and follow-up of caries, being comparable to traditional clinical examination. Teledentistry has proven to be comparable to clinical examination for the diagnosis of dental trauma. CONCLUSIONS The data collected allow us to conclude that teledentistry, thanks to advances in technology, can be a useful means for pediatric dentists to improve the oral health of young patients and to provide better access to oral health services by effectively replacing face-to-face dentistry in various situations. The presented clinical case confirms the conclusions obtained from the literature search. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Teledentistry can replace face-to-face visits in several areas of pediatric dentistry and ensuring safe care during any future pandemics.Copyright © 2023 EDRA SpA. Tutti i diritti riservati.