Improving Oral Health Using Teledentistry and Virtual Dental Homes: Concepts and Progress

Abstract

ABSTRACTBackground In the last several decades new delivery systems have been developed and tested that demonstrate the ability to reach people who traditionally do not receive dental care. These systems bring care to people in community locations, using allied oral health personnel and social service personnel as the “front line” workers, in-person with people being served, and connected to dentists in the care system using telehealth technologies.Literature and Program Review An example of a system that uses these advancements is the Virtual Dental Home (VDH) System of Care. The VDH system provides all the essential ingredients of a “health home,” but does so using geographically distributed, telehealth-connected teams. As distinct from “dental home” systems that regard the dental office as the “home,” this model reaches people who do not regularly visit dental offices by bringing services to them. The VDH system emphasizes prevention and early intervention services in community settings, while linking to and expanding the involvement of dental offices and clinics.Conclusions There is expanding interest, policy support, and implementation experience in using the VDH system.

Keywords

• Teledentistry
• community health
• access to care
• dental care delivery systems
• oral health systems
• underserved population