Chances and Challenges of Mobile Health in Public Health Dentistry
ZE13-ZE16
Correspondence
Dr. Athira Purushothaman,
Postgraduate Student, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Yenepoya Dental College, Yenepoya (Deemed to be University), Mangalore-575018, Karnataka, India.
E-mail: mailmeathi@gmail.com
The future of healthcare delivery keeps evolving and mobile phone technology may have a huge role to play. Mobile Health (mHealth) is a facet of Electronic Health (eHealth) that involves the use of mobile phones and other wireless devices in medical practice. The effectiveness of mHealth has been proven in different studies, as well as, in different aspects of medicine and dentistry. Text messaging has made significant progress in delivering health education for maintaining oral hygiene, especially for orthodontic patients as well as tobacco cessation counseling. Mobile phone applications incorporate various features like gaming, audio, and video messages to engage smokers in several behavioural change strategies. mHealth technology has made an immense contribution to contact tracing, screening, and teleconsultation during the Novel Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Given that mHealth is a low cost, easily accessible, and widely available means of communication, it has the potential to play a significant role in public health dentistry.