Evaluating Telehealth Diagnostic Accuracy in Oral and Maxillofacial Diseases: A Comparative Study.

Abstract

Objectives: This study evaluated the accuracy of diagnosing oral and maxillofacial diseases using telehealth. Methods: We recruited 100 patients from the Oral Health Centre of Western Australia. They were either new patients or existing patients with a condition not previously diagnosed. The patients initially underwent a telehealth consultation without administrative or clinical staff assistance. On the same day, they also received a traditional in-office (face-to-face) consultation with an Oral Medicine registrar and/or consultant. Results: In this study, 70 patients were consulted via telehealth for a mucosal condition, while 30 were consulted for orofacial pain. When comparing telehealth diagnoses to in-person diagnoses, 65.7% of mucosal cases and 70% of orofacial pain cases had the same diagnosis. Furthermore, regarding the diagnoses within the chief complaint's telehealth differential diagnosis list, 87.1% were similar in the mucosal cases, and 96.7% were similar in orofacial pain cases compared to the in-office consultation. Conclusions: Our study's findings demonstrate that telehealth is less reliable than the gold standard in-person consultation for diagnosing oral diseases. However, it shows promise as an adjunctive service for screening, triaging, and monitoring patients. Further studies with guidelines for patients undergoing telehealth consultations to improve the diagnostic accuracy of oral and maxillofacial diseases are necessary.