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Teledentistry

Teledentistry (telehealth) is a tool for improving our oral health and overall health. Learn more by exploring these resources, educational information, and innovative activities.
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Dental professionals, consider adding or expanding teledental services in your practice.  Patients, talk to your providers about any telehealth options wherever you access care.

About Teledentistry

Using Teledentistry to Improve Oral Health in Massachusetts

Teledentistry (telehealth) can improve our oral health by:

  • Bringing dental care access to more patients - including those that have been historically underserved
  • Making patients feel more comfortable and welcome in the dental care setting with an introductory phone or video call. This helps with:
    • Reducing traditional barriers to care, such as transportation
    • Reviewing and resolving cost concerns patients may have
    • Making space to share dental fears and practice trauma-informed care
    • Reducing stress for the patient/caregiver and care teams by discussing any necessary accommodations for the in-person visit ahead of time
  • Providing oral health care to patients more quickly and efficiently by:
    • Improving care coordination and communication between the provider or office and patient/caregiver and other providers in the care team
    • Reducing the number of in person appointments, as well as missed patient visits
  • Providing a pathway for integrating oral health and overall health by increasing provider to provider virtual consultation

Getting started with teledentistry for dental professionals

  • Determine the level of need in your practice
  • Review the guidance on teledentistry and the resources. See Teledentistry Guidance in Massachusetts
  • Build internal buy-in and leadership from your dental team
  • Select a use case to pilot that makes sense for your practice. See Massachusetts Promoting Remote Initiatives for Dental Engagement (PRIDE) Project for example use cases.
  • Develop a workflow for the pilot
  • Evaluate the pilot for sustainability in your practice and make changes as needed
  • Reach out to the Office of Oral Health oral.health@mass.gov for technical assistance

Accessing teledentistry services for patients

Teledentistry Guidance in Massachusetts

Access to Health Services through Telehealth Options I  MassHealth

This material goes over MassHealth’s current policy and guidance for telehealth, including teledentistry

Massachusetts Promoting Remote Initiatives for Dental Engagement (PRIDE) Project

  • About the PRIDE Project:

Massachusetts Project PRIDE – Promoting Remote Initiatives for Dental Engagement – is part of the Office of Oral Health’s work addressing oral health access gaps in dental health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) by establishing innovative portable/mobile dental programs with teledentistry capacity operating from community health programs in Massachusetts.

The project activities are designed to increase the accessibility and scope of oral health services within dental HPSAs without the typical brick-and-mortar physical expansion. The target population includes people who live in the largely rural Franklin County in the northwestern part of the state (especially low-income people, school children, and migrant farm workers in the region) and members of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head/Aquinnah and other island residents of Martha’s Vineyard without dental access, in Eastern Massachusetts.

To support these activities, the Office of Oral Health conducts ongoing program evaluation and provides technical assistance and project management, including workflow expertise on teledentistry, recruitment and retention, program evaluation, and sustainability planning, in partnership with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, two Massachusetts dental schools, are also conducting similar pilot testing in the school environment and creating pathways for future graduates to be competent in teledentistry and expect it within their future practice settings.

By the end of the project period, we expect to have demonstrated sustainable and innovative portable and teledental methods to improve dental access for a range of populations who currently lack equitable access to oral health services.

  • Examples of teledentistry use cases from PRIDE Project:
    • access to emergency dental care
    • pre-visit planning with new patients
    • post-operative follow-up visits
    • care coordination
    • examinations including anticipatory guidance for patients less than 3 years of age

The development of these resources was partially supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit HRSA.gov.

Teledentistry Resources

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