Table 2 Categorizations of usefulness perceived on tele-dentistry services by participants (scoping review 1991–2021)
Domains | Items |
|---|---|
Time | Save time (for patients/clinicians/staff) [11, 21, 24, 25, 58] Reduce the waiting time [11, 26, 58] Minimization of doctor’s delay [58] |
Access to oral medicine services | Increase patient access to oral medicine services [5, 7, 18, 51, 58] A convenient way to access Oral Medicine services. [1, 3, 7, 51, 59] A convenient way for disabled patients in the remote population. [21] Improved access to remote specialists for unassisted populations [40] Facilitate patient–professional communication [18, 24] Continuous clinic visits and care [5, 7, 45] Improve access to preventative and diagnostic care for remote communities [7, 19, 27] |
Communication between dental clinicians | Rapid access to specialist opinions for the general practitioners [58, 60] Practical means of communication between dental clinicians [45] Optimizing the use of specialists’ skill in underserved area [8] Access specialized knowledge globally through experts` integration [1] Access to specialist (dental hygienist located in a remote or underserved area/primary healthcare) [7, 57] Improve access to specialists (confirming diagnosis/detecting oral lesions/formulating treatment plan) [7, 27] Communication (share uncertainties, complexity of cases, experience and doing the best for the patient) [7, 60] Giving advice of secondary healthcare staff to primary healthcare staff base on appropriate information [45] Reduce isolation of practitioners through contact with peers and specialists [7] Management/diagnosis of oral lesions by remote support of specialists [7, 40] Allowing clinicians to treat the patients in an informed manner [8] |
Referrals | Streamlining referral of patients [19, 61] Reduction of unnecessary referrals [8, 9, 19, 24, 40, 58] Aid the referral pathway from primary to secondary care [20] Ensuring timely referral [24] Suitable for management of referrals for older dependent adults with oral mucosal disease [25] |
Travel | Reduce unnecessary traveling time and cost [7, 19, 24] No need to move from home [11] Environmental benefits due to reducing the travel distance [7, 51, 58] |
Quality of care | |
Patient empowerment | Increasing patient’s awareness [5, 41] Self-monitoring [5] Risk-factor modification [5] Improves self-oral care [24] Triaging of patient through tele-consultation [24] |
Triage | Improve the efficiency of specialty triaging [1] Ability to prioritize patient's medical needs [13] Effective triage of patients who need emergency clinical attention [1, 13, 18] Avoiding unnecessary clinical visits [10] Reduce the congestion at the hospital [19] |
Cost | An economical method of preoperative assessment when patient transport is difficult or expensive [8, 58] Cost-effective way to organize healthcare [58] Saving the costs of referral [60] Reduce cost of oral health maintenance through shared resources [7] Suitable for elderly who avoid hospital-based treatment due to travel costs [25] Reduce cost of oral health maintenance through shared resources [7] |
Education and Training | Learning opportunities for apprentices (dentists/dental students/assistants) [5, 7, 24] Collaboration to exchange experiences [7] Implementation of the treatment plan under the guidance of the specialist [7] Provide multipoint interactive continuing education courses [7] Multicenter treatment planning conferences [7] Inter-residency case reviews with community dentists at remote sites [7] Providing long-distance interactive training to local therapists at remote area [7] Originate multiple providers virtual care groups to provide distended clinical training [7] Improved access to specialists for clinical training [7] Improve the knowledge required for better oral cancer detection by distance learning courses [37] Create patient awareness of the harmful risk factor in oral cancer [24] Facilitate patient education about self-care [7] Provide a way to deliver long-distance clinical training and continuing education [7] |
Health crisis | Ability to continue clinical education of oral medicine trainees during COVID-19 [13] Visits and ongoing care during COVID-19 pandemic [13] Convenience way to access to oral medicine during COVID-19 pandemic [22, 41, 62] Good option for advice or follow-up during COVID-19 [12, 46] Preparing for future health crises [41] Following the infection control protocols with tele-consultation prior to a face-to-face visit [62] Prioritize higher-risk patient while avoiding face-to-face contact during COVID-19 [17] Reducing unnecessary hospital visits during COVID-19 pandemic [17, 63] Monitor oral medical emergencies [63] Alleviate patient's anxiety related to delays in scheduling their office visit in COVID-19 [13] Provide clinical and supportive care to patients with oral diseases during pandemic [16] Management of oral medicine emergencies [12] Provide reassurance [12] Providing multidisciplinary care (group video calls) for patients who require the same [12] Prescription of routine blood tests via video conferencing software [12] Prevent increased morbidity of various dental and oral diseases due to delayed treatment during COVID-19 [15] |
Empowerment of local resources | Enabling of primary care facilities for specialized diagnosis and treatment [10, 24] Provide direct support for a dental hygienist located in a remote area [7] Providing more accessible dental care and education by hygienists [7] Providing less expensive preventive dental care and education by hygienists [7] Support for remote early detection of oral cancer in resource-limited settings [23] Identifying oral lesions at primary level using m-Health and onsite/remote oral medicine specialist diagnosis [24] Large impact on optimizing resource utilization around specialty care [8] |
Surveillance | Provide geo-marking for high-risk group by aiding in surveillance [24] Community screening and follow-up of patients [26] Early detection of oral cancer, particularly in low-resource setting [19, 21] Management of oral cancer and regular screening [62] Continued early diagnosis [59] Prevention of oral and pharyngeal cancer [59] Long term improving of oral cancer survival rates [34] Reduce the deficiencies in traditional screening methods by integrating health and technology [24] |
Patient management and monitoring | Management of patients with oral mucosal disease [25] An efficient/well accepted approach of managing patients with chronic oral mucosal diseases [45, 56, 60] Follow-up during treatment by fixed and scheduled rounds [58] Integrate clinical setting for patient management [26] Facilitating diagnosis and treatment plane [60] Elderly patients’ management [25] Distant supervision/consultations of elderly patient [25] Increasing patient monitoring [41] Provision of supportive care for patients with oral mucosal conditions [13] |