What is Teledentistry? How Does it Work? How to Build a Teledentistry Software, App, or Portal?

An Open Letter to All Dentists from a Healthcare IT Professional

Yes, you, dear dentists.

You did a fantastic job during the time of the pandemic.

It was really scary practicing dentistry while being meters away from a virus threat.

But do you know what is scarier?

Not adopting the technology.

Look around, you’ll find several healthcare startups focusing on dental care.

These startups surely know dentistry less than you!

But have millions of dollars on hand and generate business worth 100 times more than what a dentist makes in the USA!

It’s really high time to adopt the change, adopt the technology.

Otherwise, some over-excited so-called entrepreneurs will carry away your patients.

What is Teledentistry?

Teledentistry is nothing but the delivering dental care using telecommunication technology such as

• Messaging
• Voice calls
• Video calls

More specifically, it is a practice of booking dental appointments online and receiving dental care online – on either a mobile app or web app (portal).

Both patients and dentists have access to useful features which are designed and built with the purpose to make online dental consultation as powerful as an in-person consultation.

These features include but are not limited to

• Medical notes
• ePrescription
• Chatbot
• Pre-visit forms
• eReferral
• Medical history

The best part of teledentistry is that it facilitates patients to receive dental care without leaving their homes and lets dentists deliver care from anywhere at any time.

How Does Teledentistry Work?: A Workflow

Let’s understand the working of teledentistry with an example of a patient – Jacob.

• Jacob logs into the teledentistry app from his mobile phone
• He then sets up his profile by adding basic information and his insurance details
• Jacob now answers a few questions so that system can understand his exact dental needs
• Based on his needs, the system finds appropriate dentists for him
• Jacob can also manually search for the dentist he would like to receive care from by exploring the list of all dentists registered on the platform
• Jacob books a virtual appointment with a dentist at his available time
• Jacob can also talk to the dentist instantly without booking an appointment but it costs him more
• 15 minutes before the appointment, both dentist and Jacob receive a reminder and video call joining link
• Jacob also receives pre-visit forms from his doctor which he can easily fill out online
• At the set time, Jacob has a high-quality video call with his dentist
• Jacob has captured some pictures of his teeth which he can now share with his dentist
• The dentist assesses Jacob’s dental care needs and writes an e-prescription
• Jacob can easily access it in the form of a PDF file from his profile
• Jacob can also find details for follow-up appointments from his profile.
• At the end of the virtual dental consultation, Jacob now needs to pay a fee if he is uninsured and can give a review too.

What are the Benefits of Teledentistry?

Teledentistry benefits both patients and dentists.

So, let’s discuss the benefits of both of them.

Benefits of Teledentistry for Patients:

• It saves time and cost as patients don’t need to find dedicated time from work and travel to the nearest dental clinic for dental care.
• It enables rapid care for patients as patients can talk to the dentists at the available time or instantly in an on-demand manner – all without waiting in the waiting room!
• Patients have access to multiple dentists at a given time and have the flexibility to choose the dentist who meets their needs properly.

Benefits of Teledentistry for Dentists:

• Dentists can deliver dental care from anywhere in the world.
• Dentists can see more patients in a given time which results in more earnings.
• Dentists can reduce patient footprints at their clinics by serving patients online.
• Dentists can attract more patients as they are now not limited to just one locality.

Compliance Requirements for Building Telemedicine Apps for Dentists

Healthcare apps are prone to data breaches.

Thus, to make sure all healthcare apps which handle patients’ crucial financial and clinical data must have adequate privacy and security measures in place, governments have imposed several healthcare data privacy laws.

These laws are region and country-specific. For example, HIPAA does apply to you in the USA. Similarly, PIPEDA does apply to you in Canada, PHIPA in Ontario, and GDPR in the EU.

All of these healthcare privacy laws have administrative and technical requirements which you must address to make your platform compliant with applicable laws.

By being compliant with applicable data privacy laws, you eliminate all privacy vulnerabilities and create a secure environment for data storage, usage, and sharing.

And by not being compliant with data privacy laws, you become liable for cyberattacks, reputation loss, and hefty fines from government privacy commissioners.

Understanding #HealthcarePrivacy Laws of Canada

— A Thread —

— SyS Creations Inc. (@syscreations) May 2, 2022