Sruggling to fit in a dentist appointment into your busy agenda? Or are you just completely freaked out by the idea of sitting in dentist chairs? The solution is finally here: the Toothpic application for your Smartphone.
Toothpic allows you to get a dental check-up through the combined use of a short questionnaire and a number of pictures that are sent over to a certified dentist. To compile your personal case a set of questions needs to be answered regarding your dental and medical history, including your last dental check-up date, how often you brush your teeth and whether you are a smoker. Additionally, you need to point out any trouble or pain you are experiencing in your mouth including a detailed explanation. The second part of your personal case consists of six photos you need to take of your mouth. The Toothpic app gives clear instructions before every photo is captured to ensure well-taken pictures that can be assessed by the dentist. As the quality of our modern smartphone cameras has improved drastically over recent years, there is no need to take these in the dental office. The moment your personal case is fully compiled, it is sent to a dentist that is connected to a network of hundreds of certified dental experts. The case can be opened in a secure online assessment platform. The assessment involves reviewing the personal case, commenting on the questionnaire, highlighting dental issues on the photos and responding to the problems pointed out by the patient itself. The report includes a personalized analysis and insights for you as a patient. If necessary, the dentist suggests homecare solutions or recommended treatments including the urgency of the issue is and a price indication. Upon this assessment you can then take the necessary steps to a better dental health.
I have to say it is tempting to arrange future check-ups in the way Toothpic offers us, certainly when you are not experiencing any dental troubles and just want to make sure everything is fine. However, the quality of the check-up can be questioned as the personal cases can be influenced by a lot of factors: users not being honest about their dental and medical history, or photos that are taken with insufficient light or in inaccurate angles. Additionally, whenever a user does need further treatment he or she still needs to make a dentist appointment, which might still form a problem for people.
Even though I personally would still prefer going to a dentist physically, Toothpic is an attractive solution for people that are always on the road, travelling for months or just have tight schedules. It lowers the threshold to invest in your dental health and gets you a thorough check-up from a fully licensed dentist with just a couple of clicks on your smartphone.
Sources:
https://www.toothpic.com/about/
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/toothpic-app-dentist-selfie/
Thank you for sharing this interesting blog Anique! Personally, I never heard about this concept before, though I realize that services like dental care may benefit a certain type of digitalization as well as other services related to healthcare. I can definitely imagine that this is a wonderful solution to people whom are afraid of the dentist. Although I am curious for future developments; if and to what extent will people make use of these tools, and what will be the impact, if any, on these people’s dental conditions.
Hi Anique,
What an interesting read! Thanks for writing on this topic. I had not heard of this app before and think it clearly exhibits one of the new tools that will be implemented more and more in future of dentistry and oral health. I think it could be especially helpful for in-between check-ups, people who live in rural areas and for people that have a fear of going to the dentist.
I think that dental health is an exciting area for innovation. I did some more reading on the topic and found another – similar – company called MouthWatch TeleDent, which introduced an inter-oral camera that uses live streaming to do remote evaluations. This camera is specially made to see inside your mouth and uses a special liquid lens to capture a better view of the patient’s teeth. This would already address the problem of unclear pictures and would allow more guidance from the dentist while creating the images for review. I agree that sometimes it is just better to go to a dentist physically. However, often, people don’t go to the dentist until they are in pain or suspect is a problem. I think this type of app would be a good prevention tool and it would make it easier to spot problems early on. Moreover, I think that it might also speed the pace with which people seek help after noticing a slight problem. Overall, I would definitely consider it in the future!
Sources:
https://medicalfuturist.com/the-amazing-future-of-dentistry-and-oral-health
https://www.mymouthwatch.com/