In Canada, teledentistry has been used periodically by public health programs in more rural and remote regions. When the COVID-19 pandemic closed dental offices for all but emergency care in March 2020, dentists across Canada quickly needed a new way to connect with their patients. “Access to dental care became a major issue for everyone all of a sudden,” says Dr. Sonica Singhal, who published an article about the use of teledentistry in Canada during COVID-19 to determine possible future opportunities for the technology.1 “What I noticed anecdotally was that dentists I knew were quite stressed about how to provide consultations to their patients who were facing dental problems but could not be seen in person,” says Dr. Singhal. “They began doing remote consultations, which helped meet those unmet needs.” But, she says, there were challenges to maintain standards of practice. She summarized some of the primary concerns of dentists during this time. “It was all new to everyone,” she says. “What were the ethical and moral implications of teledentistry? Could we be opening ourselves up to professional liability? How could dentists protect the privacy of personal health information of their patients online? What about informed consent? What fee codes could they use for teledentistry consults?” The Potential of Teledentistry Dr. Sonica Singhal is an assistant professor in Dental PublicHealth at theUniversity of Toronto and a public health dentist at PublicHealthOntario. 29 Issue 3 | 2023 |
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