Attitude towards Telemonitoring in Orthodontists and Orthodontic Patients.

Domenico Dalessandri,Stefano Bonetti,Alberto Signoroni,Linda Sangalli,Ingrid Tonni,Luca Visconti,Corrado Paganelli,Laura Laffranchi

doi:10.3390/dj9050047

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the attitude of dentists and patients towards the use of Dental MonitoringTM (DM), an orthodontic telemonitoring software. Thus, two different specially prepared specific questionnaires were administered to 80 dentists (40 were general dentists and 40 orthodontists) and 80 orthodontic patients. All dentists judged positively telemonitoring, as 96.25% of them considered telemonitoring indicative of high tech and high-quality treatment; 100% considered it a way to reduce the number of in-office visits; 17.5% agreed on a weekly telemonitoring frequency, 40% on a biweekly, and 42.5% on a lower frequency. Further, 97.5% of patients judged positively telemonitoring; 81.25% of them considered telemonitoring indicative of high-tech treatment; 81.25% declared to be interested in reducing the number of in-office visits through telemonitoring; 27.5% agreed on taking self-picture every week, 57.5% every two weeks, and 15% on a lower frequency. Both patients and dentists positively judged telemonitoring, considering it a technologically advanced tool increasing the perception of quality and accuracy of the treatment. Both groups were interested in reducing the number of in-office visits, although not all of them revealed to be ready to invest more money and time in it.

Highlights

Accepted: 20 April 2021Orthodontic therapies can be often long-lasting treatments, when undesired side effects occur and they are recognized by the clinician only after several months [1].In the last few years, several approaches have been suggested to reduce orthodontic treatment duration, ranging from surgical and non-surgical techniques
These approaches have the aim to speed up the biological mechanisms involved in tooth movement, to individualized orthodontic appliances fabrication and to optimize efficient clinical protocols elaboration, trying to strictly control tooth displacement direction and avoid time-wasting round trip movements [2,3,4,5,6,7]
A preliminary pilot test was performed on a group of ten orthodontic patients and ten doctors, in order to identify any possible source of confusion about any items and to test the validity and reliability of the questionnaires; after that, the two questionnaires were revised

Summary

Introduction

In the last few years, several approaches have been suggested to reduce orthodontic treatment duration, ranging from surgical and non-surgical techniques. These approaches have the aim to speed up the biological mechanisms involved in tooth movement, to individualized orthodontic appliances fabrication and to optimize efficient clinical protocols elaboration, trying to strictly control tooth displacement direction and avoid time-wasting round trip movements [2,3,4,5,6,7]. The medical and dental world were involved in this “permanently online” revolution. The Association of American Medical Colleges named it teledentistry, which is “the use of telecommunications technology to send data, graphics, Published: 22 April 2021

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