Oral care in facilities for disabled people: interest of teledentistry

Abstract

Oral health in facilities for disabled people is a real issue. Even if recommendations are proposed by national health agencies, it is still a fairly neglected area. A facility in Montpellier, South of France, has been working for several years to improve patients’ oral health and a caregiver is specially involved in this aspect. This article is about evaluating the activity of this facility on oral health and identifying the opportunity to use teledentistry. We realized a retrospective analyse of patient medical files for a period of 58 months. We identify that, among the 415 appointments to the dentist, only 3% have been performed under general anaesthesia. Teledentistry could decrease this number by 25%. Rather than saving money and time to the facility, teledentistry could also save energy and time from the patients and it is priceless. Teledentistry should be implemented to be officially evaluated in this type of facility, but it seems to be a good public health tool, on the theoretical aspect.