Elsevier

Dental Abstracts

Volume 62, Issue 5, September–October 2017, Pages 283-284
Dental Abstracts

Hands On
Mobile dental photography

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.denabs.2017.03.039Get rights and content

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Background

Regular screening and early detection are an important part of minimizing the development of dental caries, the most prevalent disease among children. These activities can be accomplished by mid-level dental providers (MLDPs), such as dental therapists. Screenings by MLDPs have been found to be nearly the same as those provided by dentists. Thus MLDPs can provide quality, safe, effective dental care at low cost, freeing up considerable economic and human resources. Clinical oral examination is

Methods

One hundred regularly attending patients at a dental clinic underwent a clinical examination by a senior dentist. A telemedicine system, ‘Remote-I,’ based on store-and-forward technology, was used. This is a comprehensive data management system capable of image acquisition, data entry, storage, and retrieval of patient health information. It enables the uploading and storage of images online, either directly from a smartphone or from a computer. An image acquisition app was developed to invoke

Results

Image quality was assessed, identifying 94% of the captured 500 digital images as gradable. One MLDP screener found 11% of the images could not be scored; the other identified 15.4%.

Considering all screening methods, the specificity ranged from 97% to 98% and the sensitivity ranged from 60% to 68%. Inter-rater reliability between the visual oral examination and the photographic records as well as the two MLDPs was moderate-to-substantial agreement. Inter-rater reliability for the photographs

Discussion

The use of MLDPs appears to be a valid, reliable way to remotely screen patients for caries via a smartphone camera. Thus mobile teledentistry could use this method and provide underserved populations with access to meet their oral health needs. In addition, dental providers with minimal training were able to detect dental caries with a high degree of accuracy from the remotely acquired photographic images. The higher value for specificity may be related to the inability of the screeners to

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Estai M, Kanagasingam Y, Huang B, et al: The efficacy of remote screening for dental caries by mid-level dental providers using a mobile teledentistry model. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 44:435-441, 2016

Reprints available from E Kruger, Int’l Research Collaborative – Oral Health and Equity, School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology, Univ of Western Australia (M309), 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia; fax: +61 8 6488 1051; e-mail: [email protected]

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