Can Teledentistry Replace Conventional Clinical Follow-Up Care for Minor Dental Surgery? A Prospective Randomized Clinical Trial

Diana Heimes, Philipp Luhrenberg, Nils Langguth, Sebahat Kaya, Christine Obst and Peer W. Kämmerer
Additional contact information
Diana Heimes: Department of Oral- and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Medical Center Mainz, 55131 Mainz, Germany
Philipp Luhrenberg: Department of Oral- and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Medical Center Mainz, 55131 Mainz, Germany
Nils Langguth: Department of Oral- and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Medical Center Mainz, 55131 Mainz, Germany
Sebahat Kaya: Department of Oral- and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Medical Center Mainz, 55131 Mainz, Germany
Christine Obst: Private Practice, In den Weingärten 4, 67551 Worms, Germany
Peer W. Kämmerer: Department of Oral- and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Medical Center Mainz, 55131 Mainz, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: (1) Background: Born out of necessity, the implementation of digital processes experienced significant increase during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, telemedicine offered a bridge to care and now an opportunity to reinvent virtual and hybrid care models, with the goal of improved healthcare access, outcomes, and affordability. The aim of this monocentric prospective, randomized trial was to compare conventional to telephone follow-up after minor dentoalveolar surgery on the basis of special aftercare questionnaires. (2) Methods: Sixty patients who underwent dentoalveolar surgery under local anesthesia were randomly assigned to both groups. After an average of four days, either telephone follow-up (test) or conventional personal aftercare (control) was performed. Based on the questionnaire, the following subject areas were evaluated: symptoms, complications, satisfaction with practitioner, travel, and waiting time, as well as the preferred form of follow-up care. (3) Results: There was no statistically significant difference regarding frequency of symptoms or complication rate. Patients who were assigned to the test group showed a clear tendency to prefer telephone follow-up (83.3%) to conventional aftercare (16.7%, p = 0.047). (4) Conclusions: The data suggest high acceptance of telephone-only follow-up after dentoalveolar surgery. The implementation of telemedicine could be a time- and money-saving alternative for both patients and healthcare professionals and provide healthcare access regardless of time and space.

Keywords: teledentistry; telemedicine; oral health; follow-up; oral surgery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3444/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3444/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:6:p:3444-:d:771232

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().