Teledentistry Highlights Significance of Digital Dentistry Studies

The Latin American and Caribbean Center for Health Sciences Information (Bireme/Opas/WHO) began using the Evidence Gap Map methodology, from the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation, highlighting the gaps in teledentistry research. Pioneering teledentistry in Brazil, the group that created the map has already been responsible for a series of digital dentistry implementation projects across the country, very important especially after the pandemic period, with the accumulation of suspension of in-person service.

At its side, another pioneer of the issue in the country was the Faculty of Dentistry (FO) of the University of São Paulo, which began thinking about digital health at the same time as the Ministry of Health itself, through the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde) ( SUS), began telehealth work in the 2000s. In this aspect, Ana Estela Haddad, professor at FO-USP, explains the importance of teledentistry studies.

According to the professor, there is a common sense that doubts the need for remote dentistry, as they relate it to the procedures that must be performed. “But issues of health promotion, prevention, diagnosis and monitoring between in-person consultations are perfectly possible to be carried out via teledentistry, in some cases, with advantages”, she adds.

Ana Estela states that, during the pandemic, the need to combine in-person care with online care was essential, expanding the use of telehealth as a whole. With the establishment of protocols to determine the possibilities of acting in online services, she comments: “With the advancement of new emerging digital technologies, both IoT (internet of things), and wearable devices, with portable telediagnosis equipment, the The possibilities of telediagnosis have expanded a lot compared to when we started with telehealth and teledentistry”.

Evidence map

The professor explains that the map is, in fact, a new methodology, applied by Bireme, which works with a group of already published systematic reviews, highlighting the gaps in teledentistry research. “This is very good because it guides future studies to ask research questions that have not yet been answered, that are in these gaps, or that are answered with a low degree of evidence, since the map also classifies the methodological quality of the reviews systematic,” she says.

Still on the evaluation of existing research on the subject, Ana Estela adds that, in the study, 68 systematic reviews on teledentistry were analyzed, of which only 19 were classified with the highest degree of reliability, indicating that there are still many gaps to be researched. “In the current context, in which scientific production is overwhelming, the map helps in this process of systematizing production”, he adds.

With some interesting findings from the study, the professor mentions that the most studied and researched topics were about professional training, the management of health services and outcomes aimed at patients, with teleconsultations and telediagnosis. “As we have few studies with a high degree of reliability, all the main areas researched within teledentistry are still a space for advancement in production. These are aspects in which new research and studies are needed to advance scientific knowledge”, she concludes.