New app helps patients get emergency dental care

A new smartphone app called DentaCom hopes to improve emergency dental care. The app enables patients to share crucial information with their provider, and it helps dentists make educated decisions about what the next treatment steps should be.

DentaCom wants to improve emergency dental care for patients. Image courtesy of Corey Stein.

DentaCom was developed by researchers who wanted to create an app that better facilitated emergency dental care, since dental emergencies often happen outside of clinic hours. Their paper is featured in October issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association (Vol. 147:10, pp. 782-791).

"There are many challenges here that our app can help with," stated senior author Thankam Thyvalikakath, DMD, PhD, in a press release. Dr. Thyvalikakath is now an associate professor at the Indiana University School of Dentistry, but was at the University of Pittsburgh at the time the app was developed. "It is a challenge for the patient to get the dental emergency appropriately managed, and not just treated by painkillers, in a busy hospital [emergency room] by a clinician who is not a dental specialist. It is also a challenge for the dentist to get details of the problem."

How DentaCom works

When lead author Corey Stein experienced an after-hours dental emergency, he realized how difficult it was to get care. Often times, urgent care and emergency departments can't treat a dental emergency, and valuable time is lost before patients can see their dental provider. Stein, who is now a dental student at Western University of Health Sciences, thought an app might be able to solve the problem.

In a process that takes about four minutes, DentaCom guides patients with dental emergencies through a series of questions that capture meaningful data. It also allows patients to take images inside their mouth and provide other details about the emergency. Providers can then use the app to make decisions about the type of care the patient needs and how soon treatment is needed.

In the JADA article, the authors concluded that a smartphone application appears to be a feasible way to report dental emergencies and that DentaCom may help dentists predict the urgency of dental treatment and prepare necessary resources. The ADA awarded Stein the 2016 Robert H. Ahlstrom New Investigator award for his work on the study.

"We developed this app as a communication tool linking patients and dentists during emergency situations," Dr. Thyvalikakath stated. "But I see even more potential in nonemergency situations when individuals, particularly those who lack dental insurance, need guidance -- do I need to see a dentist or not?"