Scope of Teledentistry during the Trying Times of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Patient Perspective Questionnaire Survey

Introduction: Teledentistry has provided a glimmer of hope for patients who require treatment, but are limited to their homes owing to Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) restrictions. Like any other professional careers, dentistry also had to switch to a new normal mode of consultation and teledentistry came to its aid. With the support of advanced technologies dental care was made possible even though face to face interactions were to be refrained due to the curfew restrictions.

Aim: To assess the scope of teledentistry from a patient’s perspective.

Materials and Methods: The survey was designed as a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in the Department of Periodontics, Karpaga Vinayaga Institute of Dental Sciences, Chengelpet, Tamil Nadu, on dental patients of Chennai, India, from April 2021 to May 2021 who made use of Telemedicine for dental consultation. The study population included those who sought teledentistry and the study included 100 participants. A computer aided self-administered questionnaire was designed and validated. Practicing dentists were requested to circulate a questionnaire containing 10 questions that assessed scope of teledentistry from patient’s perspective, to their patients at the end of their teleconsultation after obtaining consent. A total of 94 responses were obtained successfully out of 100 participants. Descriptive analysis of the obtained data was done using International Business Machines Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) software version 22.0.

Results: The mean±Standard Deviation (SD) age of the study participants was 33±2.5 years, there were 51 males and 43 females. A 57.5% (n=54) of individuals made the best use of teledentistry during the lockdown and 59.6% (n=56) of the respondents felt that teledentistry was safe as it prevented the risk of unnecessary exposure and cross-infection. Of all, 79 (84.04%) respondents answered that they support teledentistry in the future. Suggestions were received requesting reduction in consultation fee and to increase consultation timings.

Conclusion: Teledentistry proved to be an excellent alternate mode of dental service during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Moreover, it helped to bring down the cross-infection and made health services available to people caught up in inaccessible areas thus, making teledentistry a valuable tool that can be used on a day to day basis.