Leonardo Meza-Palma & Jorge Rosales-Salas
Summary
In the context of quarantine due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, dentistry has migrated to remote care mechanisms to categorize emergencies and casualties. However, there is no evidence of validated teledentistry protocols applied to remote emergency triage in the literature. Therefore, we propose an instrument called "Remote Categorization of Dental Emergency and Assistance” (C.R.U.D.A., for its Spanish acronym), applied to a teledentistry protocol. For the construction of the protocol, we used the action-research methodology, a selfreflection cycle to solve an existing problem, a constant repetition of planning, action, systematic observation, and reflection, with which we perfected the instrument in a collaborative and rigorous way. The objectives of the protocol are to standardize, optimize and automate the process of categorization of dental emergencies thanks to its specificity, decreasing the time and complexity of its application on a large scale, allowing to decongest the health system and to diminish the risk of unnecessary exposures, thus protecting clinical staff and patients. At the same time, its level of readability would allow for improved communication and patient orientation. In short, the proposed protocol is viable and meets the characteristics to optimize the current teletriage process, enhancing personalized attention between dentists and patients. However, it is necessary to carry out applicability and validity studies, in addition to incorporating the corresponding improvements according to the errors or defects detected by patients and dental surgeons.
KEY WORDS: Dentistry, Telemedicine, Urgent Care, Triage, Readability, COVID-19
How to cite this article
MEZA-PALMA, L. & ROSALES-SALAS, J. Teledentistry Protocol for Patient Assistance in Emergency Dental Management. Quarantine COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2). Remote Categorization of Dental Emergency and Assistance (C.R.U.D.A. for its Spanish acronym). Int. J. Odontostomat., 14(4):529-537, 2020.