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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oral. Health
Sec. Oral Health Promotion
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2024.1496222
This article is part of the Research Topic Use of Teledentistry and Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Dental Care for Vulnerable Populations View all articles

"Teledentistry" using mobile app (telesmile) to improve oral-health among the visually impaired and hearing impaired population in Saudi Arabia: a randomized controlled study

Provisionally accepted
Hytham N. Fageeh Hytham N. Fageeh 1Manawar A. Mansoor Manawar A. Mansoor 1Hammam I. Fageeh Hammam I. Fageeh 1Hina N. Abdul Hina N. Abdul 1Hamza Khan Hamza Khan 2Abdulrahman Akkam Abdulrahman Akkam 2Idris Muhaddili Idris Muhaddili 2Sultan Korairi Sultan Korairi 2Ashok K. Bhati Ashok K. Bhati 1*
  • 1 Faculty of Dentistry, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia
  • 2 College of Dentistry, Jazan University, Jizan, Saudi Arabia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: To assess the efficacy of the “Teledentistry” method using mobile app (telesmile) in enhancing the knowledge of oral health condition and oral hygiene practices among blind and deaf population in Jazan Province of Saudi Arabia. Methods: Randomized parallel design controlled study was conducted among 50 blind and 50 deaf subjects between the age group of 12-18 years, randomly chosen from the blind and deaf schools. The participants were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. An innovative teledentistry platform named “Telesmile” mobile application for IOS Apple app store and google play store was developed. Multi-media designed “Arabic dental sign language oral hygiene instructions videos” were fabricated and uploaded in the “Telesmile mobile application” under the deaf category. Similarly oral hygiene instructions were audio recorded by the experts and uploaded under the blind category of “Telesmile mobile application”. Group I of blind (n=25) and deaf category (n=25) received the regular oral hygiene instructions while Group II of blind (n=25) and deaf (n=25) category received “Telesmile mobile application” The knowledge pertaining to oral health and oral hygiene practice was evaluated using the close-ended questionnaire comprising 14 questions at the initial visit (T0). The training sessions were conducted for all participants and “Telesmile mobile application” was distributed among group II subjects of both the groups. After 4 weeks (T1), the knowledge regarding oral health and hygiene practice was re-evaluated and compared for each group. Results: The chi square test revealed that the marginal mean of the knowledge pertaining to oral health and oral hygiene practice for the blind and deaf subjects was very poor at the initial visit (T0) and it significantly increased (p<0.001) after 4 weeks (T1) of using the “Telesmile mobile application”. Conclusion: “Telesmile mobile application” can tremendously enhance the oral hygiene knowledge among the blind and deaf subjects. The audio technique could be used as an effective tool to deliver oral health education which will result in improving the oral health status of blind participants . The videos demonstrations are also effective to enhance the oral health and oral hygiene knowledge amidst the deaf individuals .

    Keywords: Oral Health, Teledentistry, visually impaired, Hearing Impaired, oral hygeine

    Received: 13 Sep 2024; Accepted: 06 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Fageeh, Mansoor, Fageeh, Abdul, Khan, Akkam, Muhaddili, Korairi and Bhati. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ashok K. Bhati, Faculty of Dentistry, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.