title: Improvements in dental care using a new mobile app with cloud services.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Traditional dental care, which includes long-term oral hygiene maintenance and scheduled dental appointments, requires effective communication between dentists and patients. In this study, a new system was designed to provide a platform for direct communication between dentists and patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A new mobile app, Dental Calendar, combined with cloud services specific for dental care was created by a team constituted by dentists, computer scientists, and service scientists. This new system would remind patients about every scheduled appointment, and help them take pictures of their own oral cavity parts that require dental treatment and send them to dentists along with a symptom description. Dentists, by contrast, could confirm or change appointments easily and provide professional advice to their patients immediately. In this study, 26 dentists and 32 patients were evaluated by a questionnaire containing eight dental-service items before and after using this system. Paired sample t test was used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After using the Dental Calendar combined with cloud services, dentists were able to improve appointment arrangements significantly, taking care of the patients with sudden worse prosthesis (p < 0.05). Patients also achieved significant improvement in appointment reminder systems, rearrangement of appointments in case of sudden worse prosthesis, and establishment of a direct relationship with dentists (p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our new mobile app, Dental Calendar, in combination with cloud services, provides efficient service to both dentists and patients, and helps establish a better relationship between them. It also helps dentists to arrange appointments for patients with sudden worsening of prosthesis function.
authors.affiliation: Dentistry Department, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsinchu Branch, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC; Department of Dentistry, School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Chia-Yung
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu City, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Kang-Lin
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu City, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Ji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Information Management Office, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsinchu Branch, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Jui-Yuan
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu City, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Yu-Chee
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.affiliation: Dentistry Department, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsinchu Branch, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Jhih-Ren
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Dentistry, School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address: minhueychen@ntu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Min-Huey
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D003729:Dental Care / Q000379:methods*; D017269:Dental Prosthesis Repair / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003812:Dentist-Patient Relations; D003815:Dentists / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D063731:Mobile Applications; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: cloud computing service; dental care; mobile app; telemedicine