A comparative analysis of traditional dental screening versus teledentistry screening

Abstract

This comparative analysis determined the reliability of using intraoral cameras and communication technologies (ICTs) to screen primary school children for dental caries. METHODS: A concordance study assessed the diagnostic agreement between traditional and teledentistry screening of dental caries in 233 school children aged 6-8 years old from randomly selected rural primary schools. Clinical screening, scored for DMFT, was carried out by two trained and calibrated examiners. Two trained and calibrated teleden-tistry assistants (TAs) captured intraoral images, and stored the data in corresponding eFiles. After a two week wash-out period, the intraoral images were evaluated and scored for DMFT. Concordance and inter- and intra-exam-iner reliability were determined using the Kappa Statistic. RESULTS: The intra-rater agreement and reliability across methods was 98.30% and 95.09% for examiners one and two respectively, assessed as indicating 92.79% between random agreement and perfect agreement (p < 0.001). The high concordance level indicated that there was no statistical difference between the clinical screening and the screening teledentistry method. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the reliability of utilising teledentistry as a dental screening and diagnostic tool which can be valuable in the delivery of oral health care in South Africa especially with view to the implementation of the NHI.