[The necessary ethical questioning regarding the caring relationship in dental telemedicine]

Technological innovations in the fields of medical imaging and communication have enabled the rise of dental telemedecine. By transforming the usual caring relationship, dental telemedicine virtualizes the medical procedure and generates a mutation of the classical relational model that rearticulates the relationship between the dentist and the patient. It introduces a positive lever that must stay up to the appraisal of the benefit-risk equation, that an ethical questioning will help to evaluate for every patient. Dental telemedicine must be understood as a mean, and not as an end. It must not be fantasized as a universal dental care model. It seems to be recommanded to investigate systematically the technological innovations and the development of protocols thanks to ethical guidelines in order to evaluate a priori and a posteriori any kind of progress that might be considered.