Validated Questionnaire on Intraoral Scanner Effectiveness in Paediatric Patients

Abstract

The intraoral scanner represents an important innovation in the world of dentistry, capable of transforming and digitizing conventional workflows and significantly improving communication with the patient, especially in pediatric age. The aim of this study is to investigate how digital dentistry, using the intraoral scanner, can interact in the communicative trinomial dentist–pediatric patient–parents and how this tool can be useful in communicating and understanding the received message. The value of the introduction of digital dentistry on communication schemes is evaluated by administering a questionnaire of 17 questions. A sample of 100 children aged between 6 and 12 years was studied. Of the sample of children/parents included in the study, 50 were re-examined 4 weeks after the first visit to re-administer the questionnaire. Internal consistency, assessed through Cronbach’s alpha, was adequate, being alpha equal to 0.728. Test–retest reliability was assessed with Cohen’s kappa index for dichotomous variables (percentage of agreement was >85.71%), and for the discrete variables it was assessed with the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). The reliability was moderate (0.5 < ICC < 0.75) for Q4, Q9, Q11 and Q1; for the other answers, the reliability was poor (ICC < 0.5) and not statistically significant. The digital approach is confirmed not only as a powerful innovation from an engineering or clinical point of view, but also as a useful tool for a more effective communication in the approach to pediatric patients.

Keywords

• intraoral scanner
• pediatric dentistry
• questionnaire