“IF you can take a selfie, you can start a consultation.’’
This is from Alicia Webb, a registered Dental Hygienist with a Master of Science in Health Informatics.
Amid the pandemic, Webb believes that teledentistry and Artificial Intelligence or AI will fast forward oral health care.
Access to health care depends on financial capability and what public health authorities call the “overwhelming shortage of dental providers’’ across America.
If that’s the case in the world’s richest country, ponder for one moment how it is in our islands.
The United States Health Resources and Services Administration designated areas that do not have enough dentists to serve locals.
Five specific population designations were used to show the shortages of dental health professionals, including low income, medical insurance eligibility, homelessness, migrant farmworkers, and migrant seasonal workers.
The data showed that as of 2019, there were 36.828 million Americans without access to dental care. They live in 2,265 designated areas that have shortages in dental health professionals.
These areas fail to meet the ideal ratio of one dentist to 4,000 or 5,000 persons. Using this ratio, 9,098 additional dentists are needed across 2,265 of these areas.
The problem has worsened with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). There have been many dental providers who left the profession due to concerns about the pandemic, Webb pointed out. “Relations between dentists and dental hygienists have never been more strained, and according to dental hygiene associations, many dental hygienists do not feel safe performing their jobs.”
As a result, she said, “COVID-19 will vastly impact the dental provider shortage.”
Technology provides a possible solution.
New AI technology is emerging in the form of “self-monitoring” mobile applications, said Webb. Teledentistry or distant dentistry provides affordable, effective, and efficient ways to bring oral health care.
“Smilo.ai,” for example, is a new mobile app that generates an oral health rating using AI technology.
Patients take photos of their teeth and gums. The photos are scanned by the app which identifies dental decay or gum disease.
This is what Webb meant when she said, “If you can take a selfie, you can start a consultation.’’
Using the remotely taken photos, oral health is rated accordingly.
The rating provides patients the information about the state of their oral health. Forwarded to dental care providers, oral health issues may be detected at an early stage. This way, more expensive procedures may be prevented.
“This AI technology has the ability to increase oral health awareness and case acceptance and increase production while decreasing the cost of dental care for patients,” Webb said.
“This self-monitoring feature combined with oral health education allows patients to take control of their oral health.’’
Being well-informed “gives patients the option to be more involved in decision making regarding their dental treatment,” Webb observed, putting in a caveat that “AI is not the final solution for traditional public health monitoring.”
Still, she said, “AI could be instrumental in spotting the first signs of trends, leading to tracking the progression of disease and assembling resources in rapid response.”
Many teledentistry platforms have developed in these pandemic times.
One of these is “Virtudent” which allows companies to provide a teledentistry platform for employees. Diagnostic and preventive care is provided right in the workplace, making dental care less costly.
Webb observed that each year, loss of productivity due to missing work costs America some $6 billion.
“This is why the Smilo.ai application and teledentistry platforms such as Virtudent are important in serving the community, especially while the ongoing pandemic threatens to worsen an already cumbersome public health issue,” Webb pointed out./PN
