Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Estai, Mohamed
• Kanagasingam, Yogesan
• Huang, Boyen
• Checker, Hellen
• Steele, Lesley
• Kruger, Estie
• Tennant, Marc

Titel

The efficacy of remote screening for dental caries by mid-level dental providers using a mobile teledentistry model

Ist Teil von

• Community dentistry and oral epidemiology, 2016-10, Vol.44 (5), p.435-441

Ort / Verlag

Denmark: Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Objectives This study aimed to determine whether intraoral photographic assessment by mid‐level dental providers (MLDPs) offers a valid and reliable means of dental caries screening. Methods A mobile teledentistry model was developed to facilitate the acquisition of dental images, and transmission and reviewing of data. One hundred regularly attending patients at a dental clinic participated in the study. Following an on‐site clinical examination by a senior dentist, photographs of participants' teeth were taken by a teledental assistant, using a smartphone camera. These intraoral photographs were directly uploaded from an Android App to a cloud‐based server, ‘Remote‐i’, using an encrypted store‐and‐forward telemedicine technology. The photographic assessment carried out by two independent screeners (MLDPs), was compared to the visual oral examination scores of a benchmark examiner. Results The sensitivity and specificity values for the photographic assessment method (assessed by screeners) as compared to the direct visual examination ranged from 60% to 68%, and 97% to 98%, respectively. The intra‐rater reliability for the photographic assessment was almost perfect, with a kappa score of 0.89. The inter‐rater reliability between the photographic and visual oral assessments ranged from moderate to substantial agreement, with kappa scores ranging from 0.57 to 0.61. Conclusion A new smartphone‐based mobile teledentistry model used by mid‐level dental providers shows potential for remote screening of dental caries.