Telemedicine in Oral and Maxillo-Facial Surgery: An Effective Alternative in Post COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The aim of this work was to demonstrate the advantages of using telemedicine (TM) in the management of the outpatients with maxillofacial surgical pathologies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted at the MaxilloFacial Surgery Unit of “Magna Graecia” University of Catanzaro, on two different groups of patients: a group of follow-up patients (A1: patients in oncological follow-up after surgical treatment performed before the COVID-19 pandemic; A2: suffering from chronic lesions such as precancerous lesions), and a group B of patients with first urgent visits (B1: patients with suspected oncological pathology; B2: patients with suspected urgent disease such as medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaws (MRONJ), odontogenic abscesses, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dislocation, etc.). Participation in the study required possession of a smartphone with Internet access, e-mail and the use of a messaging service (WhatsApp or Telegram) to send photos and messages; completion by the patient of a COVID-19 screening questionnaire; submission of a satisfaction questionnaire by the doctors and patients. A total of 90 patients were included in this study. A high percentage of satisfaction emerged from the analysis of the satisfaction questionnaires of both patients and doctors.TM thus represents an excellent opportunity to improve accessibility to oncological and non-management activities, reducing the risk of Covid-19 dissemination and should be promoted and implemented in the post-pandemic era.

The role of teledentistry in oral cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: an integrative literature review

“…Included studies were conducted in Brazil [ 30 – 32 ], England [ 33 ], Hong Kong [ 34 ], Italy [ 35 , 36 ], India [ 37 ], Saudi Arabia [ 4 ], and USA [ 38 , 39 ], all published in English.…”

“…Seven references were letters to the editor/editorials [ 4 , 30 – 33 , 36 , 37 ], and four were case reports [ 34 , 35 , 38 , 39 ] evaluating the application of remote technologies in the follow-up and monitoring of patients with oral cancer and head and neck cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic. The emphasis was on the mitigation of the evolution, severity, and complexity of the disease in the face of restrictions that the pandemic imposed on health systems.…”

“…Some authors have observed that dentists may carry out virtual visits for follow-up, interviews, and clinical examinations with the guidance of oral habits for their patients [ 4 , 37 ]. Two authors verified that patients could take photographs and copy of biopsy report [ 35 , 39 ] of the mouth and refer them to the dentist to manage the evolution of the lesion. According to the authors, this also allows the control of the virtual education of the patients about the clinical signs and risk factors of oral cancer, through valid and reliable websites, reducing anxiety with information available in the common media [ 4 , 37 ] and a spatial appreciation of in some oral lesions through using the mobile phone light, allowing the humanization of the virtual visit [ 39 ].…”

Complementarity of Photo-Biomodulation, Surgical Treatment, and Antibiotherapy for Medication-Related Osteonecrosis of the Jaws (MRONJ)

“…Such an approach is confirmed by recent studies, which point out to the better effectiveness of combining different techniques for treating MRONJ [ 73 ], but also to the necessity to diagnose it early and to treat it efficiently [ 74 ]. Other recent aspects of interest refer to telemedicine approaches of such conditions in pandemic situations [ 75 ].…”

The Research on Patient Satisfaction with Remote Healthcare Prior to and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Logically speaking, the review of concept and theoretical notions should take place prior to the measurement of this construct, while the analysed papers studied patient satisfaction in the reverse order. There were also papers in which satisfaction was not defined at all [43,[46][47][48][49]53,56,61,[64][65][66][67]72,80]. Taking into account both the survey questionnaires developed by the authors as well as well-defined, known, validated and reliable measures, these treat satisfaction as a multi-dimensional construct.…”