Oral Telemedicine for People With Special Needs: Assessing Patient Acceptability.

Objectives: Assess the acceptability of patients with special needs (elderly, disabled) by calculating their mood score during oral telemedicine consultations
Methods: We conducted a multicenter retrospective descriptive study over a period from February 06, 2018 to April 24, 2023.
Informed consent was signed by patients or by their legal guardians when they were not able to make decisions.
Oral examinations were carried out by trained paramedical staff using a Soprocare® intra-oral fluorescent light camera.
For each patient, we recorded and reported acceptability indicators rated between -16 and 16. Positive indicators such as attention, interest, pride and cooperation scored between 0 and 4 points, while negative indicators such as fear, agitation, hostility and nervousness scored between -4 and 0 points.
Microsoft Excel and Stata software Version 16.1. (Stata; College Station, TX, USA) was used to perform the statistical analysis, and the results were presented in percentages (%).
Results: 682 patients were evaluated in this study, with 45% women and 55% men.
39% of patients were taking at least one psychotropic drug, and 26% antiepileptic drugs. Average visit time was 40.11 minutes. The acceptability score increased significantly with the number of teleconsultations for the same patient. The acceptability of teleconsultation is reflected in the mood score, which is positive but relatively neutral during the first teleconsultation, and increases steadily during subsequent consultations.
Conclusions: The use of the intra-oral camera, although initially intimidating for some patients, has proved to be an effective and accepted tool over time.