If you’re a dental hygienist, you’d most likely imagine yourself going to each and every patient, doing scaling, exposing radiographs, evaluating for any oral diseases, spreading awareness about oral health and even conducting preparations for an examination by the doctor. However, there’s a new way of going about the dentistry business now and it’s Teledentistry! With increasing technological advancement, it’s only a matter of time before it reaches the field of dentistry. With Teledentistry, patients no longer have to make the trip to a dental clinic to get the required care from a professional. Here is our comprehensive guide on teledentistry!
What is Teledentistry?
Teledentistry is a form of virtual dental service to administer dental care for patients without having the need to travel and visit a dental clinic. The patient is only required to take a photo or video using their personal device and share it remotely with the dentist. He or she is then able to assess the patient’s problem through the video or photo and prescribe the right type of medication to promote healing. The dentist may even temporarily help ease the pain or discomfort before recommending the patient to make an appointment at the clinic itself.
Primary Benefits of Teledentistry
One main benefit of teledentistry is increasing the ease of access to dental service for larger groups of people, especially those in the underserved communities. With such services, people who don’t have the means of transportation or the access to arrange an appointment at a dental office can now receive some form of professional dental care.
Another key benefit is the ability for dental hygienists and dentists to concentrate on their patients that require more care and attention, especially those that suffer from severe dental problems or diseases. With teledentistry, those that suffer from minor dental issues can get dental care administered quickly and fuss-free in an online appointment, reducing wait times for patients in the physical clinic.
Lastly, it opens up more job vacancies for people in the dental industry. Developers of the new technology have to continuously improve and debug to improve dentists and patients experience during the teledentistry appointment. Additionally, appointment details, prescription lists and patient records have to be organized properly and securely within the office. Above all, when more people utilize teledentistry for dental care, it helps to enhance job security of qualified dental hygienists.
Why Should Dental Professionals Use Teledentistry?
There are several crucial advantages of teledentistry for dental professionals, here’s why!
Dentists can immediately pinpoint the problems remotely and prescribe medications that help provide relief for many patients. In cases of a toothache or an abscess, antibiotics can be prescribed for palliative relief before they can arrange a follow-up exam at a physical office.
Also, dental hygienists can make use of teledentistry to save unnecessary visits to the clinic for patients, with over-the-counter remedies recommended by dentists to solve minor issues. This is extremely useful as many people have various difficulties with transportation or even with their busy schedules.
