Telemedicine is a subunit of telehealth, and it uses telecommunication technology, video, digital images, and electronic medical records to allow the exchange of clinical information and images over remote distances for dental consultation, diagnosis, and treatment planning. Dental clinical practice requires face-to-face interaction with the patients, and therefore, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has mostly been suspended. In this view, teledentistry offers the opportunity to continue dental practice, avoiding the face-to-face examination that put patients and healthcare professionals at infection risk. Teledentistry encompasses several subunits such as teleconsultation, telediagnosis, telemonitoring, and teletriage. To date, there are several experiences described in literature that suggest that teledentistry could be applied to support traditional care of different oral diseases. However, there are some issues that need to be addressed. Reimbursement concerns, costs, license regulations, limits in physical examinations, and expert equipment are principal issues that should be overcome in telemedicine and in teledentistry. In this narrative review, we provide an overview of the different teledentistry approaches in the care of patients with dental and temporomandibular disorders, as well as discussing the issues that need to be addressed to implement this approach in clinical practice.

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease, characterized by gradual cartilage degradation, bone remodeling, synovitis, and chronic pain. Due to the limited self-healing capacity in condylar cartilage, traditional clinical therapy have limited symptom-modifying and structure-modifying effects to restore impaired cartilage as well as other TMJ tissues. In last years, stem cell-based therapy has collected much attention as a possible approach toward tissue repair and regeneration. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), derived from the bone marrow, synovium, and even umbilical cord, play a role as seed cells for the cartilage regeneration of TMJ. MSCs possess multilineage differentiation potential, including chondrogenic differentiation as well as osteogenic differentiation. In addition, the modulations of MSCs exert antiinflammatory and immunomodulatory effects under aberrant conditions. Furthermore, MSCs combined with appropriate scaffolds can form cartilaginous or even osseous compartments to repair damaged tissue and impaired function of TMJ. In this review, we will describe the potential sources of MSCs and novel approaches for the cartilage regeneration of TMJ, particularly focusing on the MSC-based therapy and tissue engineering.

A current topic in dentistry concerns the biocompatibility of the materials, and in particular, conservative dentistry and endodontics ones. The mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) is a dental material with biocompatibility properties to oral and dental tissues. MTA was developed for dental root repair in endodontic treatment and it is formulated from commercial Portland cement, combined with bismuth oxide powder for radiopacity. MTA is used for creating apical plugs during apexification, repairing root perforations during root canal therapy, treating internal root resorption, and pulp capping. The objective of this article is to investigate MTA features from a clinical point of view, even compared with other biomaterials. All the clinical data regarding this dental material will be evaluated in this review article. Data obtained from the analysis of the past 10 years’ literature highlighted 19 articles in which the MTA clinical aspects could be recorded. The results obtained in this article are an important step to demonstrate the safety and predictability of oral rehabilitations with these biomaterials and to promote a line to improve their properties in the future.

Temporomandibular disorders are a group of conditions affecting the temporomandibular joints, the jaw muscles, and related structures. Patients with temporomandibular signs and/or symptoms frequently present with indications for prosthetic treatment. The management of these patients aims to achieve patient comfort, occlusal stability, and the complex restoration of the teeth. The goal of this review is to provide an overview of the relationship between prosthodontics and temporomandibular disorders and/or bruxism with a focus on the cause-and-effect implications and the strategies for planning prosthetic treatments in patients with temporomandibular disorders and/or bruxism.