Letter to the editor in response to the “Smartphone oral self-photography in teledentistry: Recommendations for the patient”

Teledentistry involves the use of telecommunication technologies to provide medical information and services. Teledentistry can contribute to remote assessment (teletriage) and continuity of care (telemonitoring). This remote assessment can be done by sending photos taken by the patient with a smartphone, who must be trained to take quality photos. ¹

In the response to the article titled “Smartphone oral self-photography in teledentistry: Recommendations for the patient” published in your esteemed journal, which is a well thought of and written paper, I would like to raise few points regarding this study. ¹

The improvement of service to the population with areas lacking dentists is through the development of teledentistry. There are already cameras that acquire images, which can be sent to specialists who will diagnose and monitor these patients remotely. For this, the acquired images must be of good quality and there must be a good capacity to send the captured data. ²

Artificial intelligence algorithms can be used in teledentistry programs to serve populations in countries that have an uneven distribution of specialists in their territory. For today's computer training thousands of classified images are needed. Thus, telemonitoring devices, in addition to being able to use artificial intelligence technology, become important sources of data for the improvement of algorithms.

The recent coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic demonstrated the importance of technology in care and education. ³ The development of new artificial intelligence algorithms and imaging devices, which can be used by the patient, can facilitate the monitoring of diseases in areas with few specialists or in situations that require social isolation such as epidemics. Academic centres should take this opportunity to modify their curriculum, including training in data science, computing, virtual reality and teledentistry. Technology became essential to treat and monitor illnesses for patients who could not travel to hospitals due to social isolation. New advances in the technical and legal areas will be important to accompany the development of these new technologies, protecting the confidentiality of patient data. Thus, whether with the improvement of teaching or the dissemination of the use of new technologies, measures are necessary to reduce this great economic cost caused by dental diseases that can be prevented with an adequate diagnosis and follow-up. We must strive to develop a teleservice in which its main focus is not only to reduce investment in health, but to increase the effectiveness of patient follow-up. ⁴