Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 28, 2026
Measuring Maxillary Posterior Tooth Movement: A Model Assessment using Palatal and Dental Superimposition
Published on: February 23, 2024
Using teledentistry to provide interceptive orthodontic services to disadvantaged children
Jeff Berndt1, Paola Leone, Gregory King
1Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, Toppenish, Washington, USA. BerndtJ@dentistry.unc.edu
Introduction:
Socially disadvantaged children have limited access to orthodontic services. We examined the feasibility of a general dental practitioner providing interceptive orthodontic services to disadvantaged children with real-time supervision from an orthodontist using teledentistry.
Methods:
Pretreatment and posttreatment orthodontic study models of 30 children treated by a general dentist using teledentistry and 96 children treated by orthodontic residents directly supervised by orthodontic faculty were scored with the peer assessment rating (PAR) index.
Results:
Both groups had significant improvements in PAR scores: 35.6% in the teledentistry group and 44.1% in the direct supervision group (P <0.001). There were no significant differences between the groups before treatment or after interceptive orthodontic treatment.
Conclusions:
The results of this study suggest that interceptive orthodontic treatments provided by sufficiently prepared general dentists and supervised remotely by orthodontic specialists through teledentistry are a viable approach to reducing the severity of malocclusions in disadvantaged children when referral to an orthodontist is not feasible.
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