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/

If you ever wondered how smartphones affect our daily life, you only have to look around. The majority of people on the streets have their smartphone stuck to their hands like an extension of their bodies. In public transport people are not communicating with the strangers next to them, but opening their Facebook app for the fourth time in ten minutes to check if their news feed is updated. Most people even bring their smartphones to bed making it the last thing they see before they go to sleep and the first thing they think of in the morning.

With over three billion smartphone users worldwide, it is not hard to imagine these devices dominate our life. The Global Mobile Consumer Survey 2017 of Deloitte showed that 93% of the Dutch population owns a smartphone compared to 77% of the adult Americans, according to the PEW Research Center. With these high numbers come new phenomena that describe our current 24-hour connected world. Among these are Nomophobia, the fear of being without a smartphone or having no internet connection, and FOMO, the fear of missing out, which means we keep checking our devices to not miss out on any updates or posts. Next to this, many smartphone users admit to have experienced phantom vibrations or calls. 50% of smartphone users feel uncomfortable when they forget their phones at home and the founder of the Swedish mental health and well-being app Remente David Brudo claims that an average smartphone user checks their phone 80 to 150 times a day. We are therefore practically making ourselves slaves of our own smartphones without even being conscious about it.

“The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Smartphone addiction and the constant checking of social media also brings along the phenomenon of “fake reality”. We tend to only publish positive posts, photos of holidays and parties or joyful events, making social media accounts a distorted form of reality. Our self-worth is determined by the amount of likes we receive on our posts, we envy others because of the “perfect” life they live, and impose higher living standards on ourselves causing stress and depression. Whenever we have an interesting or great experience, we have the urge to share it with our digital followers, thereby feeding our smartphone addiction once again.

One thing is for sure: the fact that smartphones have a tremendous impact on our daily life is a given. The future promises many more technological breakthroughs, only increasing our dependence on and addiction to mobile devices. To fight our addiction, it is not as if we should abandon our smartphones as they also bring along a tremendous amount of benefits to make our lives easier and more interesting. It is, however, healthy to be aware of our extensive usage and not to forget to conduct a conversation with the stranger sitting next to you on the train. We should guard against becoming robots ourselves and make sure to stay human.

References
https://newzoo.com/key-numbers/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/
https://www2.deloitte.com/nl/nl/pages/technologie-media-telecom/articles/global-mobile-consumer-survey.html
http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/
https://www.trustmypaper.com/blog/15-terrifying-statistics-on-your-cellphone-addiction
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/phantom-vibration-addiction
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/cartoon/2017-04/17/content_28952890.htm