Using teledentistry to provide interceptive orthodontic services to disadvantaged children.
BACKGROUND
Socially disadvantaged children have limited access to orthodontic services. We examined the feasibility of a general dental practitioner providing interceptive orthodontic services to disadvantaged children with real-time supervision from an orthodontist using teledentistry.


METHODS
Pretreatment and posttreatment orthodontic study models of 30 children treated by a general dentist using teledentistry and 96 children treated by orthodontic residents directly supervised by orthodontic faculty were scored with the peer assessment rating (PAR) index.


RESULTS
Both groups had significant improvements in PAR scores: 35.6% in the teledentistry group and 44.1% in the direct supervision group (P <0.001). There were no significant differences between the groups before treatment or after interceptive orthodontic treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study suggest that interceptive orthodontic treatments provided by sufficiently prepared general dentists and supervised remotely by orthodontic specialists through teledentistry are a viable approach to reducing the severity of malocclusions in disadvantaged children when referral to an orthodontist is not feasible.
Berndt
Jeff
J
Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, Toppenish, Washington, USA. BerndtJ@dentistry.unc.edu
Leone
Paola
P
King
Gregory
G
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019140:Dental Care for Children / Q000379:methods*; D005792:General Practice, Dental / Q000379:methods*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D009972:Orthodontics, Interceptive / Q000379:methods*; D011203:Poverty; D019114:Remote Consultation; D017216:Telemedicine