What is Teledentistry? Well, it’s pretty much what it sounds like: remote dentistry by way of computers or handheld devices. It’s a subset of telemedicine, which is the same practice, but over the whole field of wellness and health.
Maybe teledentistry sounds like a complex practice best left to doctors and professors, but it’s much simpler—and older—than you might think.
Have you ever sent a picture of an injury to your mom to ask for advice? Have you ever written to someone because you have the flu and wanted their chicken soup recipe? How about phoned your workplace to say you shouldn’t go in because you were sick? If you answered yes to any of those things, then you actually have practiced telemedicine.
Origins of Telemedicine
Ancient Times
Telemedicine’s history goes back thousands of years, practically to prehistory. The ancient Greeks, ancient Native Americans, and many other peoples of antiquity are recorded using it in various ways. For example, fires might be started to send smoke signals to warn nearby tribes about a plague ravaging an area—the message was to avoid the smoke to stay out of the plague zone. Horns, drums, and more were used to communicate royal deaths and births, too. Light reflections off of mirrors were especially popular for long-distance medical messaging.
Technological Advances
The written word helped much more complicated data to be transmitted across distances, no longer constrained by the memory of a human messenger. Doctors and midwives could impart directions for dealing with common sicknesses or births to far-flung communities, with less fear of their message being altered.
Then, the telegraph and the telephone made telemedicine instant. A doctor could talk with someone and give them verbal help in real time.
Now, we have even more advanced technology at our fingertips. Everyone carries a high-resolution camera in their pocket, and that camera can send images to just about anywhere in the world. Web 2.0, 4G, and 5G are only making it easier. Technology is increasing at an ever-faster rate. It’s hard to predict, but definitely wonderful to imagine the future of telemedicine.
For more reading on the fascinating history of telemedicine, look here.
Teledentistry
Teledentistry is much more specific, and with modern technology, is becoming more widely used. Why bother with remote dental service, though? There are dental offices all over the U.S. And around the country, people can simply walk into a hospital for oral health care.
Benefits of Remote Dental Care
Cost saving
If you do a search online, you will find plenty of websites offering teledentistry. These sites cost much less to run than the overhead a whole office creates. A dentist and a web designer—or a dentist who is a web designer—can set up a website with almost no overhead. It’s cheaper and easier to look at a few pictures and read written symptoms in order to make a diagnosis than it is to bring a patient into an office.
Reach
Those with few resources aren’t the only people who can benefit from remote dentistry. So can people in far-flung locales, or rural settings. Rather than travel for hours, to reach a dentist, they can convey important information back and forth instantly whenever they need dental help.
This combination of reach and savings is great for developing nations, too, and we’ve been keeping our eye on remarkable news about teledentistry there. Rural and poor populations can at least communicate with doctors, where before, many had no chance to get treatment.
Convenience
Even for those who live nearby a dental office, it is far easier to send information than go in person. Anybody can snap a quick pic and/or send a list of symptoms to a doctor’s office. Sending a message takes a few minutes, whereas scheduling and going to an appointment can take hours. Many dentists’ offices even have specific messaging pages on their websites that enable you to communicate with them.
Feedback
Teledentistry can play a huge role in improving the doctor-patient relationship. Communicating with your dentist regularly about what kind of problems you may be having, and how you are feeling, will only help you in the long run. And you can certainly benefit from more frequent reminders for cleanings, specific info about daily care, news about new dental products…the list of ways in which remote dentistry communication can help you goes on and on.
Click here for more info and here for more recent news about teledentistry.
What does the future hold for Teledentistry?
No one truly knows what future technologies will bring, but a few things seem certain:
- It will become more widespread. Look at how computer technology has gone from enormous laboratories to our pockets in the last 50 years.
- Barriers will get lower. Technology will get cheaper, it will be easier for the poor and underprivileged to use remote dentists’ help.
- Quality will improve. Camera technology will get smaller and pictures more detailed. There are already endoscopes in use in doctors’ offices. Camera advances will enable dentists in remote places to make better decisions based on more exact information.
Teledentistry and You
Although most dental offices don’t offer teledentistry services yet, many in the field love the idea, and are working towards it. Josey Lane Dentistry in Carrollton, Texas is one of those offices. We are fascinated by the emerging fields of technology meshed with medicine. If you contact us today, you can ask about the steps we hope to take in the future. Whether serving existing clients, getting new clients remotely, or helping those in need of dental care, Josey Lane follows the cutting edge of dental advances with a keen eye!
Emergency
Patient Forms
Contact Us