Teledentistry in the Management of Patients with Dental and Temporomandibular Disorders.

Telemedicine is a subunit of telehealth, and it uses telecommunication technology, video, digital images, and electronic medical records to allow the exchange of clinical information and images over remote distances for dental consultation, diagnosis, and treatment planning. Dental clinical practice requires face-to-face interaction with the patients, and therefore, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has mostly been suspended. In this view, teledentistry offers the opportunity to continue dental practice, avoiding the face-to-face examination that put patients and healthcare professionals at infection risk. Teledentistry encompasses several subunits such as teleconsultation, telediagnosis, telemonitoring, and teletriage. To date, there are several experiences described in literature that suggest that teledentistry could be applied to support traditional care of different oral diseases. However, there are some issues that need to be addressed. Reimbursement concerns, costs, license regulations, limits in physical examinations, and expert equipment are principal issues that should be overcome in telemedicine and in teledentistry. In this narrative review, we provide an overview of the different teledentistry approaches in the care of patients with dental and temporomandibular disorders, as well as discussing the issues that need to be addressed to implement this approach in clinical practice.

COVID-19 Surface Persistence: A Recent Data Summary and Its Importance for Medical and Dental Settings.

Recently, due to the coronavirus pandemic, many guidelines and anti-contagion strategies continue to report unclear information about the persistence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the environment. This certainly generates insecurity and fear in people, with an important psychological component that is not to be underestimated at this stage of the pandemic. The purpose of this article is to highlight all the sources currently present in the literature concerning the persistence of the different coronaviruses in the environment as well as in medical and dental settings. As this was a current study, there are still not many sources in the literature, and scientific strategies are moving towards therapy and diagnosis, rather than knowing the characteristics of the virus. Such an article could be an aid to summarize virus features and formulate new guidelines and anti-spread strategies.

Dental Office Prevention of Coronavirus Infection.

Coronavirus disease is now spreading in different countries of the world. The alarmism created through the media also creates confusion in people about virus spreading. The health care environments among which the dental practice could be places of spread of the virus, especially places where patients with systemic pathology could be exposed to this. The purpose of this article is to clarify coronavirus disease 2019 and its management in the dental practice. Only by following the normal guidelines on disinfection and sterilization of environments and operators, with some additional rules on the management of patients in the waiting room, it is possible to limit this risk. Limiting the risk of spreading the virus is one of the keys to its eradication.