Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practices of dental professionals towards teledentistry

Abstract

Introduction: The capabilities of information technology have advanced in these years. Electronic information together with telecommunication technology has allowed increase of health care services at distance. Most developing countries have started to use telemedicine as a mean to overcome challenges related to shortage of specialists, lack of infrastructures, limited clinical services and inexperienced primary health care providers. Likewise, dentistry faces problems related to shortage of dental specialists, access, cost, efficiency and quality of dental services. Those obstacles might be overcome with the use of teledentistry technology. Currently, the use of teledentistry is still low in developing countries. In Rwanda the state of teledentistry is undocumented. Without knowledge and positive attitude of dental practitioners towards teledentistry, it will not be easy to implement teledentistry innovations. Aim: The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of dental professionals towards teledentistry. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Kigali-Rwanda on 157 dental professionals. A census method was used to collect data on the assessment of knowledge, attitude and practices of dental professionals towards teledentistry. A standardized questionnaire which was adapted to local context was used to collect data. Data was collected to dental clinics or academic institution where authorization data was granted and 103 dental professionals responded to the questionnaire. STATA, version 13 was used for data coding and analysis. Descriptive statistics, one way ANOVA and Fisher exact tests were performed to analyse data. Results: Majority of respondents had good knowledge (88%) and positive attitude (88%) towards the benefits and application of teledentistry. However the practice of teledentistry being done by dental professionals is still at low level where only seven (6%) of dental professionals are using videoconference for health related purpose intercommunication. Also only 13(12.6%) and eight (7.8%) were sharing digital x-ray and digital photographs as a reason of intercommunication respectively. The knowledge, attitude and dairy internet access were statistically significant with practice (p <0.05). viii Also knowledge of dental professionals towards the benefits and application of teledentistry was statistically associated to their attitude towards the benefits and application of teledentistry (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results revealed that dental professionals are knowledgeable and have positive attitude towards teledentistry. Again, dental professionals overall believe that teledentistry is good and it has to be integrated into the current dental practice. However, the practice of teledentistry is still at low level comparing to other advanced applications of teledentistry done in other areas. To bring dental practice at another level in areas like dental education, dental research, community outreaches, and dental health care delivery and so on, there is a need to use the opportunities provided by teledentistry technology.