Awareness and attitude of patients regarding teledentistry during the COVID 19 pandemic

Abstract

Background: During COVID 19 virus outbreak, teledentistry has stepped up into the spotlight. It has emerged as a critical technology to bring medical care to patients while attempting to reduce the transmission of COVID 19 among patients, families, and clinicians Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the awareness of teledentistry and to determine how beneficial it can be to the community. Methods: A total of 100 participants were included in our study who met our inclusion and exclusion criteria. A pretested, self-administered, close-ended questionnaire was included to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and awareness among the participants. The completed questionnaire was collected and subjected to statistical analysis Results: The mean age of the study population came to be 31.54 years with 59% females and 41% males. 29% visited dental OPD during Covid pandemic. 28% of participants were observed to have awareness regarding teledentistry. 33 concurred that teledentistry cannot truly help in wellbeing and isn’t a good alternative to visiting dental clinic Conclusion: Thus from our results we can conclude that regardless of multiple benefits of teledentistry in various aspects of the field of dental practice, its use is still limited due to relative unawareness among the general population. Teledentistry can be a potential approach in providing oral health care to the community during Covid 19 pandemic times as consultation, diagnosis, and treatment planning in teledentistry provides a safe approach in accommodating patients.

Keywords: Covid 19 pandemic, Novel, Teledentistry.