Smile for the camera: telemedicine comes to your local dentist's office.
Dentistry has faced the same access issues that have spurred telemedicine development in other fields. However, until recently dentistry has lagged behind in adopting telemedicine. The findings of the Association of Telemedicine Service Provider's (ATSP; www.atsp.org) 1998 Report on US Telemedicine Activity, done collaboratively with Telemedicine Today Magazine, are instructive. Of over 40,000 teleconsults among 139 U.S. programs performed in 1997, only 200 were dental teleconsults--all done by one program. Although that figure represents a significant increase over the 4 dental teleconsults reported in 1996, teledentistry has a long way to go. The first steps are now being taken. At the schools of dentistry at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Bristol in Bristol, England, two different approaches to teledentistry are being actively explored. Telemedicine Today spoke with lead researchers at each school to discuss these programs.
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UCLA Oral Medicine Faculty, USA. glennc@dent.ucla.edu
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