467 - Evaluation of Oral Healthcare for Vulnerable and SHCN Population by Utilization of Teledentistry in Patient Care

Purpose: The purpose of this retrospective study was to obtain and analyze qualitative (types of visits such as trauma, pain, extractions) and quantitative (e.g., number of visits for each location) visit data in teledentistry for the pediatric population since the beginning of the SARS-COV-2 outbreak at NSU Pediatric clinics.

Methods: In this retrospective study, we extracted telehealth data from Axium’s EHR (Electronic Health Record) from March 2020 through June 2021 for patients from 0 to 21 years of age. A total of 40 patient dental records were extracted and analyzed. The common parameters evaluated based on the records were age, sex, reason for telehealth consultation, and treatment and referral provided for both the groups of patients i.e., with and without special needs.



Results: The arithmetic mean, median, and standard deviation were evaluated for continuous variables. Counts and percentages were utilized for categorical variables. The gender breakdown observed was 65% males and 35% females. 37.5% of patients were special needs patients. To examine relationships between study variables, Welch T-test was used to compare groups for the continuous variable. For all categorical measures, a Fishers Exact Test has been employed. There was no significant difference observed between the group of patients with and without special needs for all the observed factors. This suggests both the groups have comparable results in terms of utilization of teledentistry. This preliminary analysis suggests that teledentistry may prove to be an important adjunct to traditional in-office dental visits for special needs patients during crisis like the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.