Virtual Orthodontic App: Visit a dentist virtually anytime

Technology shapes our reality and makes us get used to new ways of dealing with things. If we can do so many basic things like shopping or ordering food online, why shouldn’t there be virtual solutions allowing us to consult a doctor in no time? 

Just imagine a situation where you wake up at night with an awful toothache. Your dentist’s office is closed and it is not appropriate to call your doctor at night. So what would you do? Keep struggling till morning when you are able to come to a clinic and see your dentist? Or maybe you would have used a virtual orthodontic app if you’ve had one? 

Without doubt so called “teledentistry” is a must these days for both dentists and their patients. Thanks to this solution dentists can provide remote consultations, prescribe medications to alleviate the pain, explain some clinical information, follow up your treatment and care, coordinate all upcoming appointments and many more. As to the patients, they will have a chance to set up an instant consultation with their dentist (that is especially convenient for those who cannot get to the clinic easily, e.i. disabled people, or people that live too far),  choose the best specialist and save some money, because a virtual dentist visit costs less than a real one. 

Key advantages of virtual dental care 

Virtual orthodontic apps are perfect healthcare solutions to invest in and there would be more and more such solutions in the near future, because they are convenient for both doctors and patients and they offer totally new ways of providing instant dental services. 

Of course if a patient requires a serious dental treatment like surgical procedure, he would still have to visit a dentist office. But when it comes to routine teeth health checks or urgent consultations with a dentist, teledentistry becomes quite a handy solution. It offers numerous benefits for both doctors and patients. So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look at all of them. 

From the patients’ side we can highlight the following pros of virtual dentistry: 

• Better and faster access to dental care and pain relief.
• A chance to avoid unnecessary visits to dental clinics.
• Possibility to save money because virtual consultations const almost twice less than real ones.
• Opportunity to quickly set up a real visit and schedule the convenient day and time.
• Easy selection of the specialist that you find more suitable (while virtual consultation a doctor can provide you not only with some advice but also with some visual materials which helps to understand if you will be at hands of the right specialist).
• A way to discover all treatment options (before a patient agrees to any procedure, he needs to collect information regarding different methods available and what impact they might have on his health afterwards. And virtual consultation gives a dentist enough time to explain everything to a patient).
• Discover if a patient is eligible for a certain procedure before scheduling any and investing money in it.
• A chance to improve oral health and choose correct dental care (it is really unnecessary to go to a clinic to select suitable daily dental care since this can be done online under the supervision of a dentist).
• The easiest way to discover how much money a patient needs to start and complete real treatment since it is possible to discuss everything with a dentist and get prepared.

From the dentist’s and clinic’s perspective virtual orthodontic apps have no less benefits. Apart from bing convenient and time-saving, mobile solutions can help to: 

• Ensure data security – the patients can send doctors messages containing their social security numbers, payment card info, some medical records, etc. Sending all this via email is not secure enough, so apps with authentication provide better data protection. 
• Make business more stable – dentists will no longer lose patients because the clinic is inconveniently located, or because there is an influx of patients in the office who need a consultation, which can now be performed virtually. Moreover, online dentistry helps to unload clinic employees, since the appointments can be scheduled easier and there is a quick access to the doctor’s appointments calendar. 
• Save medical supplies and consumables – during real appointments a dentist should wear disposable gloves and face mask. So if there are a lot of patients a lot of medical supplies get thrown away which is not so eco-friendly. So an application for online dentist consultation resolves this issue and helps to save ecology, clinics cost and supplies. 
• Devote quality time to patients – virtual orthodontic apps allow us to develop a more attentive and personal approach to each patient, understand their particular issues, and provide necessary treatment or relevant medical advice faster. 
• Train new dentists easily – application can allow to connect the second doctor to the online consultation with the patient to show on practice how everything should be done. Moreover it is possible to add a feature allowing to arrange dentists conferences to exchange information and experience. 
• Reduce paperwork – there will be less folders with documents related to patients appointments because everything will be stored in your online solution. On top of that, it will be easier to find information related to a certain patient using a convenient search system. 

How does online dentistry work and what features are needed? 

So basically an online dentistry is a solution that can be used on both your computer and mobile device. Any patient can complete registration, add some crucial information to the created profile, upload pictures. Then he will enter a so-called virtual waiting room to fill out medical related information and payment data. Then a patient will have to wait for a couple of minutes until a professional dentist will be picked to assist him by starting a video call or scheduling it in the built-in messenger. At the end of the video call the patient can set an appointment with that dentist in a clinic if needed. 

All dentist providers should also create their profiles in the app, provide evidence that they are certified professionals who work in a certain clinic. Then they will be able to start online consultation. 

If you want to take a look at the already created online dentistry, then check out The TeleDentist service. It is a very convenient smart solution for both dentists and patients and according to the calculations, patients on average spend $60 for online consultation while in an emergency room it would take them $400 or more. 

You may also pay attention to Dentulu as a good example of online dentistry. It is available for iOS and Android devices and it has loads of useful features allowing to connect doctors with patients and ensure that their communication and online appointment is a success. They even offer live tracking of the dental team location. 

Based on our experience we have collected some features that your online orthodontic app should have to make user experience pleasant. So here is out short list of them:

• Convenient registration – you do not need to add too many mandatory fields. The registration should be simple and ask doctors and patients to add only really important info. 
• Video conferencing option – this is the main point of this whole application so make sure that this feature is realized perfectly. 
• Appointment scheduling – add a functional calendar and think about how it should demonstrate whether the date or time of the appointment with a certain doctor is already booked or still free. 
• Messaging tool – it will be needed if a patient needs to share a picture with a dentist, or if it is necessary to receive any treatment related updates or reminders. Doctors can also share some video and photo materials with the patients to explain some matters using real examples. 
• Payment gateway – the consultations are provided by dentists not for free, so there should be a way to pay for them using online payment methods (like Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, etc). 
• Virtual checkups – in case the patients cannot visit the clinic because they are away from town or there is any other reason for that. 

FAQ

How to develop a virtual orthodontic app? 

If you’ve made a decision to build your own solution for providing online consultations to your patients, then the first thing you need to do is find a reliable developers team. The thing is that the development consists of numerous stages and you will need not only tech takes but also Business Analysts, QA engineers, designers. They all will help you to analyze your current business situation, set necessary goals, discover how a software will help to achieve them and how you can stand out from your competitors. On top of that, the specialists can help you to identify what kind of software you might need, what options it should have, and what technology stack will be suitable.

Also you may ask yourself a question “What if I already have a software or patients management system that my dentistry uses? Do I really need an app and how they will be conected?” Well, if you are using certain custom business tools they can be integrated with the new solution and you will get a smart ecosystem for your clinic. The main purpose of every solution is to automate your business, make it more efficient and cient-oriented. So the connection of systems and creation of a smart and intuitive tool is our main task as a software development company.

We have experience in building healthcare solutions of different complexity and we also know how to develop video conferencing apps. Therefore by choosing Altamira you will get not only a team of experienced professionals but also a trusted partner able to digitalize and boost your business.

In Conclusion

Going digital and building an online dentistry app for your clinic is a great idea if you want to achieve efficiency, improve service convenience and quality and serve more patients (which in turn leads to more income). A cutting-edge solution with well thought-out functions can help to connect dentists with patients and avoid a lot of paperwork, overloaded schedule and crowds in your clinics hall. 

Not all patients require serious operations or physical presence to resolve their dental matters. So if you think about those who only need a routine consultation or professional care advice, you will be one step ahead of all your competitors. Moreover virtual orthodontic apps can be great tools able to enhance patients’ education in the healthcare field and find new groundbreaking ideas among practitioners who can arrange seminars and share experience using the app.