Can Teledentistry Improve the Monitoring of Patients during the Covid-19 Dissemination? A Descriptive Pilot Study

TLDR

The study aimed to describe the advantages of telemedicine in dental practice during the Covid‑19 emergency. The study involved two patient groups—urgent and follow‑up—who used WhatsApp to send photos for remote consultations. A total of 418 photos were collected from 57 patients, enabling remote monitoring that reduced costs, limited contact, and lowered Covid‑19 transmission risk.

Abstract

The aim of this pilot study was to describe the advantages of telemedicine (TM) in dental practice during the current national emergency condition due to the Covid-19 dissemination. At Department of Oral Surgery and Pathology—Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, regional reference center for Covid-19—two groups of patients were determined: patients with urgent conditions (group U) and patients in follow-up (group F). Both groups were instructed to implement remote consultations using a messaging service (WhatsApp Messenger, WhatsApp Inc., Mountain View, California, USA) to send photos. A total of 418 photos were collected by 57 patients. Thirty-four photos were obtained by five patients in the U group after surgical procedures. All patients sent photos on the established evening, except for two patients who sent two photos outside the set days. In the F group, 384 photos were collected by 52 patients. None of them sent more photos than the number that was established by the protocol. Telemedicine allowed a monitoring of all patients, reducing costs and limiting human contact, decreasing the risk of Covid-19 dissemination.