Table 1.
Summary of the studies discussed.
| Authors | Title | Subunit | Modality | Oral disease | Primary outcome reached | Strengths | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Petruzzi and De Benedittis | WhatsApp: a telemedicine platform for facilitating remote oral medicine consultation and improving clinical examinations | Teleconsultation/telediagnosis | Mobile health care services | Malignant and benign oral lesions | Yes | Comparison with the clinicopathologic diagnosis/sample size | No regulation and standardization of quality images |
| Ignatius and Perälä | Use of videoconferencing for consultation in dental prosthetics and oral rehabilitation | Teleconsultation | Synchronous | Prosthetic or oral rehabilitation treatment | Yes | — | Small sample size |
| Salazar-Fernandez et al. | Telemedicine as an effective tool for the management of temporomandibular joint disorders | Teleconsultation | Asynchronous | TMJD | Yes | Multicenter/sample size | — |
| Exposto et al. | Remote physical examination for temporomandibular disorders | Teleconsultation/telediagnosis | Synchronous | Myalgia and arthralgia due to TMJD | Yes | Comparison with standard examination | Small sample size |
| Carrard et al. | Telediagnosis of oral lesions in primary care: the EstomatoNet Program | Telediagnosis | Asynchronous | Malignant and benign oral lesions | — | Sample size | No comparison with standard examination |
| AlShaya et al. | Reliability of mobile phone teledentistry in dental diagnosis and treatment planning in mixed dentition | Telediagnosis | Asynchronous | Dental caries | Yes | Examination of the oral cavity based on WHO criteria/comparison with standard examination | Restricted age group 6–9 years (no data on permanent teeth) |
| Kohara et al. | Is it feasible to use smartphone images to perform telediagnosis of different stages of occlusal caries lesions? | Telediagnosis | Asynchronous | Dental caries | Yes | Comparison with standard examination | All the photographic images were taken by the same operator |
| Sunny et al. | A smart tele-cytology point-of-care platform for oral cancer screening | Telediagnosis | Asynchronous | Oral malignant lesions | Yes | Comparison with conventional cytology | Small sample size |
| Estai et al. | Teledentistry as a novel pathway to improve dental health in school children: a research protocol for a randomised controlled trial | Teletriage | Asynchronous | Dental care | Study ongoing | Comparison with standard examination | — |
| Kopycka-Kedzierawski et al. | Dental screening of preschool children using teledentistry: a feasibility study | Teletriage | Asynchronous | Dental care | Yes | Comparison with standard examination | Restricted to preschool children |
| Kopycka-Kedzierawski and McLaren | Advancement of teledentistry at the University of Rochester's Eastman Institute for Oral Health | Teletriage | Synchronous | Dental care | Ongoing | Sample size | No comparison with standard examination |
| Brucoli et al. | The use of teleradiology for triaging of maxillofacial trauma | Teletriage | Asynchronous | Maxillofacial trauma | Yes | Comparison with standard examination | — |
| Giudice et al. | Can teledentistry improve the monitoring of patients during the Covid-19 dissemination? | Telemonitoring | Mobile health care services | Oral diseases | N/A | — | No comparison with standard examination |
TMJD: temporomandibular joint disorder; N/A: not applicable; WHO: World Health Organization.