Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jan 12;19(2):822.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19020822.

LinguAPP: An m-Health Application for Teledentistry Diagnostics

Matia Fazio  1 , Christian Lombardo  2 , Giuseppe Marino  1 , Anand Marya  3   4 , Pietro Messina  2 , Giuseppe Alessandro Scardina  2 , Antonino Tocco  1 , Francesco Torregrossa  5 , Cesare Valenti  1
Affiliations

LinguAPP: An m-Health Application for Teledentistry Diagnostics

Matia Fazio et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

An Android/iOS application for low-cost mobile devices to aid in dental diagnosis through questionnaire and photos is presented in this paper. The main purposes of our app lie in the ease of use even for nonexperienced users, in the limited hardware requirements that allow a wide diffusion, and in the possibility to modify the questionnaire for different pathologies. This tool was developed in about a month at the beginning of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic and is still in use in Italy to allow support to patients without going to the hospital, if not strictly necessary.

Keywords: dentistry diagnostics; m-health application; medical questionnaire; teledentistry.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Simple sketch of the proposed methodology.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Graphical representation of the questionnaire. Colours indicate the five main branches, corresponding to the possible answers of the first query. Further details are provided in the Additional Material (Appendix A). The reader is referred to the electronic version of the article for interpretation of the colours in this figure.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Requests started by a user with their relative statuses color-coded, e.g., “draft” in grey and “waiting for photos” in blue (a). First choice of a path (b). Request awaiting submission, with all choices already taken and showing the interface for adding photos (c). LinguApp features Italian phrases that can be translated quite easily (please see Additional Material).
Figure 4
Figure 4
The web interface allows to create and modify the questionnaire, also through graphic representation (a). It is possible to delete or view details for an individual request on a dedicated page containing patient contact information, the selections made (b), and the attached photos (c). Sensitive data has been censored. LinguApp features Italian phrases that can be translated quite easily (please see Additional Material).
Figure 4
Figure 4
The web interface allows to create and modify the questionnaire, also through graphic representation (a). It is possible to delete or view details for an individual request on a dedicated page containing patient contact information, the selections made (b), and the attached photos (c). Sensitive data has been censored. LinguApp features Italian phrases that can be translated quite easily (please see Additional Material).
Figure 5
Figure 5
An anonymized real case study. Although no hospital examination was necessary, this example points out the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Estai M., Kanagasingam Y., Xiao D., Vignarajan J., Bunt S., Kruger E., Tennant M. End-user acceptance of a cloud-based teledentistry system and Android phone app for remote screening for oral diseases. J. Telemed. Telecare. 2017;23:44–52. doi: 10.1177/1357633X15621847. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Meagher R., Kousvelari E. Mobile oral heath technologies based on saliva. Oral Dis. 2018;24:194–197. doi: 10.1111/odi.12775. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Motta A., Rodrigues K. Could we benefit from oral self-examination during the COVID-19 pandemic? Oral Oncol. 2020;107:104840. doi: 10.1016/j.oraloncology.2020.104840. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhang C., Fan L., Chai Z., Yu C., Song J. Smartphone and medical application use among dentists in china. BMC Med. Inform. Decis. Mak. 2020;20:213. doi: 10.1186/s12911-020-01238-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Acharya P., Mathur M. Smartphone applications for the triage of skin lesions using machine learning: Time to integrate the clinical information? J. Eur. Acad. Dermatol. Venereol. 2020;34:e424–e425. doi: 10.1111/jdv.16371. - DOI - PubMed