Remote monitoring and 'Tele-orthodontics': Concept, scope and applications

摘要

Tele-orthodontics is a broad term that encompasses remote provision of orthodontic care, advice, or treatment via information technology. The Purposes of the article were two-fold: (1) to review the rather new concept, applications and scope of teleorthodontics, and (2) to present preliminary results of a study with and without Dental Monitoring (TM) (DM) usage on appointment efficiency, patient perspectives and patient demographics. The sample was comprised of 74 consecutively treated Invisalign (R) patients using DM TM and 85 consecutively completed Invisalign (R) patients. An online questionnaire was given to the DM TM group to assess the patients' perspective on the ease of use and benefit to treatment experience using a 5-point Likert scale. Also requested was a list of 5 benefits and problems while using DM (TM). Independent t-tests were used to determine any inter-group differences in, number of appointments and age; a chi-square test was used for differences between genders. Significance was set at P 0.05. Mean number of appointments was significantly lower by 1.68 appointments for DM compared to control (P 0.001). Age averaged 3.2 years younger for the DM group (P = 0.05). More males used DM than the control group (31.6% vs 16.7%, P 0.05, respectively). The mean Likert scale rating for "ease of use" was 4.31 out of 5.0, while benefit to treatment experience rating was 4.4. The most oft-mentioned perceived benefits were "better communication" (47 times), "increased convenience" (44 times), "reduced number of appointments" (40 times), and "ease of use" (38 times). The most oft-mentioned problems were related to the "difficulty of taking scans" (27 times) and "reduced communication" (12 times). Preliminary study results suggest the number of appointments may be reduced with Dental Monitoring. In addition, there was a positive patient perception on the use of DM. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.