Learn how to improve dental care, while brushing your teeth!
“We understand that many people look at their mobile phones when they brush their teeth. The phone is therefore an excellent channel for using the camera to provide real-time instructions for personalised dental care,” says Matin Farzad.
A personalised guide on your mobile phone that shows you exactly how to use your toothbrush, interdental brushes and dental floss is being developed by researchers at the Faculty of Odontology at Malmö University.
“With this app as a coach, we hope that more people will improve their oral care routines and at the same time save on society's resources,” says Aleksandar Milosavljevic, a specialist dentist and associate senior lecturer.
If this proves to have the desired outcome, we will have a preventive treatment that is much more cost-effective and better for patients than reactive and reparative care.
Aleksandar Milosavljevic
Every adult knows that they should brush and floss their teeth daily: it is also something we are often reminded of when we visit the dentist or hygienist, often in the form of an educational leaflet on oral health care.
“Everyone brushes their teeth, but few do it properly and even fewer clean between their teeth daily. As a result, many individuals are at risk of gum disease later in life, such as gingivitis and periodontitis, which in the worst case can lead to tooth loss,” continues Milosavljevic.
The research team therefore thought about how they could make it easier for people to take care of their oral health. One solution was to develop an app for mobile phones with bespoke guides that pedagogically show people how to clean their teeth.
“We understand that many people look at their mobile phones when they brush their teeth. The phone is therefore an excellent channel for using the camera to provide real-time instructions for personalised dental care,” says Matin Farzad, who is also part of the research team.
Several steps remain to be taken in the project before the app can be available. A first step is to evaluate the effectiveness of the app through clinical studies where patients receive the personalised instructions. The instructions are recommended by the dentist and visualised in augmented reality in the app over the patient's own teeth.
The research team sees several development opportunities, for example to integrate the app with existing medical record systems in dentistry. However, this is a larger project that will be developed at a later stage.
“We now need more time to conduct several randomised clinical trials involving hundreds of patients. This is to see if we can bring about behavioural change in patients accessing the app and thus prevent or mitigate the development of serious gum disease.
“If this proves to have the desired outcome, we will have a preventive treatment that is much more cost-effective and better for patients than reactive and reparative care,” says Milosavljevic.
