Muhammad Waqar Hussain, Khezran Qamar, Bilal Murtaza, Zehra Iqtidar, Zainab Khalid, Gotam Das, Nazish Zafar.
Tele-dentistry awareness.
Pak Oral Dental J Jan ;40(1):55-8.

Healthcare provision and dental care is always subject to transformation by technology and telecommunication. An archetype shift towards better inter-professional connection can certainly yield better health services outcome. A relatively new term tele-dentistry is emerging that employs electronic methods and communications for the transfer of dental health data and statistics for remote healthcare, thereby evolving as a major milestone in dentistry abreast such technological developments. This study was conducted in Hamdard Medical and Dental College, Karachi aimed to ascertain tele-dentistry awareness among dental professionals. Practicability and viability of tele-dentistry was also analysed in this study. A pre-structured questionnaire was prepared and circulated among dental professionals` i.e. undergraduate BDS students in different years of their course and postgraduate MCPS and FCPS trainees in Hamdard Medical and Dental College, Karachi. Resultant data were statistically evaluated using SPSS version 19 with application of Chi-square test and results were obtained. It was concluded that tele-dentistry cognizance was lesser in BDS students in initial years (26.7% in 1st year BDS) of their training as compared to final year BDS students (80%) and post graduate trainees (80%) while most of them had a basic insight into tele-dentistry practices and prospects but it needed further deliberation and perceptual enhancement.

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