2002

Sv@lTooth

Project description

Purpose
There are about 2,500 people living on the arctic islands of Svalbard. The majority (1,500 people) are Norwegians. Annually, there are about 40,000 tourists visiting the islands and a significant fishing fleet is located on the fishing grounds in the area.

One dentist is situated at Longyearbyen serving the Norwegian population, seamen, fishermen and tourists. A total of about 1,700 consultations are performed annually. Orthodontic treatment is given by a specialist who ambulates five times a year. The specialist ambulates from Bergen on the west coast of Norway to Svalbard to give orthodontic treatment to about 30 patients. In between each visit of the orthodontist the patients are controlled by the GPD on average one time.

SvalTooth was commenced on a request from the orthodontist his wish was to have a continued access to x-rays and dental photos of relevant patients. The aim of the project: Continued access to dental x-rays and photos of the patients is assumed to give:

• Screening opportunity and thus decide the time to start orthodontic treatment
• The possibility to plan patient treatment prior specialist visits
• Faster and more specific evaluation and guidance from other specialists
• Higher quality on the orthodontic emergency treatment

In total this has the potential to give a more efficient and safer orthodontic service to the population on Svalbard. One objective is also to extend knowledge and experience in teledentistry

Methods
To improve the communication between the two dentists, we established a web-based teleodonotological service. This included an electronic transfer of x-rays and photos. A website for collecting and presenting patient information was developed.

In October 2001, we initiated a plan to establish a web-based communication between the dentist at Longyearbyen Hospital on Svalbard and a surgeon dentist in Bergen in Western Norway.

The following documentations were selected:

• Photos of patients' teeth/mouth
• X-rays including cephalograms, orthopantograms (OPGs) and standard intraoral x-rays of the teeth

A website (http://svaltann.nhn.no) was developed and located on a server at the North Norwegian Health Network in Tromsø. Any dentist or health care worker taking part in the project had access to the database by username and password. Each patient was coded according to a file at the Longyearbyen hospital. The home-page was running from February 2002. The project has been approved by the Norwegian Social Science Data Services.

Material
In the time period between February and August 2002, a total of 26 patients have been included. The patients' age ranged from 7 to 15 years.

Results
The orthodontist has been using the website to plan treatment before visiting Longyearbyen and to consult other specialists at the Faculty of Dentistry, at the University of Bergen in the treatment of two patients with cleft palate.

So far we still have limited experience with the teleodontological service due to a limited population on Svalbard and a short observation time. The website is only employed by the local dentist and the orthodontist and is therefore subject to the personal interest of these two users.

Conclusion
The preliminary results indicate that the web site may improve the communication between the GPD and the orthodontist and make it easier for the latter to stay updated on patients under treatment.

The study is still continuing.
There has also been a beginning interest in teleodontology from other Norwegian dental associations

Project partners

SvalTooth is a project in cooperation with
Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine, University Hospital of North Norway Faculty of Engineering and Economics, Tromsø University College, Norway Longyearbyen Hospital, Svalbard, Norway

Contact

Hedda Høvik (no longer works at NST).

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