Acceptability of teledentistry use among residents and staff in aged residential care facilities in the Otago region of New Zealand

OBJECTIVES

To assess ARC residents' and staff perceptions of the benefits of, and comfort with, teledentistry use in ARC facilities in the Otago region of NZ, and identify end-user-level factors associated with its use.

BACKGROUND

Difficulty in accessing oral healthcare services is a key barrier to aged residential care (ARC) residents' oral health and well-being. Teledentistry offers a possible solution, yet studies on its acceptability in ARCs are sparse, especially in New Zealand (NZ). This study assessed ARC residents' and staff perceptions of the benefits of, and comfort with, teledentistry use in ARC facilities in the Otago region of NZ and identified end-user-level factors associated with its use.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Rest home-level residents and care staff in ARC facilities in the Otago region of NZ were surveyed to assess their awareness of teledentistry, perceptions of benefit and comfort using teledentistry, and end-user-level factors associated with the feasibility of using it in ARCs.

RESULTS

One hundred residents and 77 care staff from 14 facilities participated. Three-quarters of resident participants thought that teledentistry was beneficial. Three in five resident participants were comfortable receiving remote dental consultations and care advice through teledentistry. Acceptability, as measured by perceived benefits and comfort, was lower among older participants. Staff participants were receptive to teledentistry use for residents and were comfortable facilitating remote dental consultations and care through teledentistry. No staff participants disagreed with the potential benefits of teledentistry for ARC residents.

CONCLUSION

Teledentistry would likely be acceptable to residents and staff in ARC facilities in NZ, contributing to residents' improved access to oral health care and improved oral health and well-being.

Working at the interface: lessons from a joined-up approach between oral medicine and paediatric dentistry

Oral mucosal and other head and neck conditions in children have a variety of presentations. The joint oral medicine and paediatric (JOMP) dental clinic is a specialised unit within a London teaching hospital, developed to manage a wide range of oral conditions with an absolute commitment to a child-centred care approach. The authors present eight cases from the JOMP clinic experience at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation trust, over a nine-year period. Each case is unique in its presentation, diagnosis and bespoke management, tailored to the nuance of each individual patient and their unique position. The eight clinical cases demonstrate the success of the JOMP team in achieving good patient outcomes, in terms of providing accurate diagnoses for their oral conditions and for appropriately tailored management/ treatment. The cases also serve to raise awareness of some of the more unusual oral conditions affecting paediatric patients among our professional colleagues.

Tele-dentistry, its trends, scope, and future framework in oral medicine; a scoping review during January 1999 to December 2021

BACKGROUND

Tele-dentistry has been increasingly used for different purposes of visit, consultation, triage, screening, and training in oral medicine. This study aims to determine the main facilitators, barriers, and participants` viewpoints of applying tele-dentistry in oral medicine and develop a framework indicating the input, process, output, and feedback.

METHOD

This was a scoping review conducted in 2022 applying Arksey and O'Malley (2005) approach. Four databases including ISI web of science, PubMed, Scopus, and ProQuest were searched from January 1999 to December 2021. Inclusion criteria consisted of all original and non-original articles (reviews, editorials, letters, comments, and book chapters), and dissertations in English with a full text electronic file. Excel₂₀₁₆ was used for descriptive quantitative analysis and MAXQDA version 10 was applied for qualitative thematic analysis. A thematic framework was developed customizing the results of the review in a virtual mini expert panel.

RESULTS

Descriptive results show that among 59 included articles, 27 (46%) have addressed the various applications of tele-dentistry during COVID-19 pandemic in the field of oral medicine. From geographical distribution perspective, most of the papers were published in Brazil (n = 13)/ 22.03%, India (n = 7)/11.86% and USA (n = 6)/10.17%. Thematic analysis shows that seven main themes of "information", "skill", "human resource", 'technical", "administrative', 'financial', and 'training and education' are explored as facilitators. 'Individual', 'environmental', 'organizational', 'regulation', 'clinical', and 'technical barriers' are also identified as main barriers of tele-dentistry in oral medicine.

CONCLUSION

According to the results for using tele-dentistry services in oral medicine, a diverse category of facilitators should be considered and at the same time, different barriers should be managed. Users` satisfaction and perceived usefulness of tele-dentistry as final outcomes can be increased considering the system`s feedback and applying facilitator incentives as well as decreasing the barriers.

COVID-19 Related Information on Pediatric Dental Care including the Use of Teledentistry: A Narrative Review

In addition to the direct impact of the SARS-CoV-2 infection, the COVID-19 pandemic reports multiple effects on people's health and psycho-physical well-being. In the dental field, oral hygiene sessions, regular dental check-ups, and aerosol-generating procedures were commonly postponed, thus resulting in repercussions on oral health also favored by the changing eating and oral hygiene habits during the multiple lockdowns. Furthermore, dental settings and practices were generally perceived as at high risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission, thus unsafe, and by general and pediatric dentists themselves. Last, the consequences of stress related to deprivation of social life and playful activities should not be underestimated in children, exposing them to the deleterious effects of bad oral habits, with repercussions on the balanced growth and development of the stomatognathic system. The present work intends to analyze the medium-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on pediatric oral and dental care provision, reviewing pediatric dentistry practice and oral and dental needs of pedodontics patients during the first peak and the various waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, and lessons learned.