Abstract: Teledentistry offers possibilities for improving efficiency and quality of care and supporting cost-effective healthcare systems. This umbrella review aims to synthesize existing systematic reviews on teledentistry and provide a summary of evidence of its clinical- and cost-effectiveness. A comprehensive search strategy involving various teledentistry-related terms, across seven databases, was conducted. Articles published until 24 April 2023 were considered. Two researchers independently reviewed titles, abstracts and full-text articles. The quality of the included reviews was critically appraised with the AMSTAR-2 checklist. Out of 749 studies identified, 10 were included in this umbrella review. Two reviews focusing on oral-health outcomes revealed that, despite positive findings, there is not yet enough evidence for the long-term clinical effectiveness of teledentistry. Ten reviews reported on economic evaluations or costs, indicating that teledentistry is cost-saving. However, these conclusions were based on assumptions due to insufficient evidence on cost-effectiveness. The main limitation of our umbrella review was the critically low quality of the included reviews according to AMSTAR-2 criteria, with many of these reviews basing their conclusions on low-quality studies. This highlights the need for high-quality experimental studies (e.g., RCTs, factorial designs, stepped-wedge designs, SMARTs and MRTs) to assess teledentistry’s clinical- and cost-effectiveness.
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Dit is het eindrapport van de Global mOralHealth bijeenkomst georganiseerd door de Wereldgezondheidsorganisatie (WHO) en de universiteit van Montpellier. Docent Mondzorgkunde - Janneke Scheerman en lid van het lectoraat GGZ verpleegkunde - woonde deze bijeenkomst in oktober 2018 bij en droeg bij aan het rapport: https://www.inholland.nl/nieuws/be-helthy-be-mobile/ Als vervolg op de Global mOralHealth bijeenkomst wordt het mOralHealth handboek ontwikkeld, waaraan Janneke meeschrijft. In het handboek worden de procedures voor het ontwikkelen van mOralHealth interventies beschreven.
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