Abstract
During the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the lockdown enforced led to considerable disruption to the activities of dental services, even leading to closures. To mitigate the impact of the lockdowns, systems were quickly put in place in most countries to respond to dental emergencies, giving priority to distance screening, advice to patients by remote means, and treatment of urgent cases while ensuring continuous care. Digital health was widely adopted as a central component of this new approach, leading to new practices and tools, which in turn demonstrated its potential, limitations, and possible excesses.
Political leaders must become aware of the universal availability of digital technology and make use of it as an additional, safe means of providing services to the public. In view of the multiple uses of digital technologies in health—health literacy, teaching, prevention, early detection, therapeutics, and public health policies—deployment of a comprehensive program of digital oral health will require the adoption of a multifaceted approach.
Digital tools should be designed to reduce, not increase, inequalities in access to health care. It offers an opportunity to improve healthy behavior, lower risk factors common to oral diseases and others noncommunicable diseases, and contribute to reducing oral health inequalities. It can accelerate the implementation of universal health coverage and help achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, leaving no one behind. Digital oral health should be one of the pillars of oral health care after COVID-19. Universal access to digital oral health should be promoted globally. The World Health Organization’s mOralHealth program aims to do that.
Knowledge Transfer Statement:
This position paper could be used by oral health stakeholders to convince their government to implement digital oral health program.
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