Table 4 Section 4: Patient/orthodontist follow-up during the pandemic
From: Patients’ perceptions of orthodontic treatment experiences during COVID-19: a cross-sectional study
Question | Response | Number | % |
|---|---|---|---|
What would your favorite mean to communicate with your orthodontist to inform him/her about your emergency during the pandemic? | Social media groups | 1 | 0.6% |
I Do Not Care | 9 | 5.8% | |
Call the operator at the hospital/beeper | 19 | 12.3% | |
Text message | 54 | 35.1% | |
Call my orthodontist directly | 62 | 40.3% | |
Unanswered | 9 | 5.8% | |
Do you like the idea of tele-dentistry to supervise the progress and integrity of the orthodontic appliance? | Extremely useful | 21 | 13.64% |
Useful | 39 | 25.32% | |
Neutral | 64 | 41.56% | |
Not useful | 13 | 8.44% | |
Extremely non-useful | 8 | 5.19% | |
Unanswered | 9 | 5.84% | |
Do you think that an emergency issue can be solved via tele-dentistry? | Strongly agree | 7 | 4.55% |
Agree | 29 | 18.83% | |
Neutral | 70 | 45.45% | |
Disagree | 31 | 20.13% | |
Strongly disagree | 9 | 5.84% | |
Unanswered | 8 | 5.19% | |
How would you like your orthodontist to follow up with your treatment during the pandemic? | Tele-dentistry consults | 5 | 3.25% |
Phone/text | 13 | 8.44% | |
Face to face | 24 | 15.58% | |
Text message | 50 | 32.47% | |
Phone | 50 | 32.47% | |
Other | 8 | 5.19% | |
Unanswered | 4 | 2.60% | |
How often would you like to connect with your orthodontist during the pandemic? | Every 3 months | 8 | 5.2% |
Every 2 months | 23 | 14.9% | |
Monthly | 111 | 72.1% | |
Unanswered | 12 | 7.8% | |
How often would you like to be seen for regular checkups during the pandemic? | Every 12 weeks | 3 | 1.9% |
Every 10 weeks | 3 | 1.9% | |
Every 8 weeks | 9 | 5.8% | |
Every 6 weeks | 20 | 13.0% | |
Monthly | 113 | 73.4% | |
Unanswered | 6 | 3.9% | |
If you had a choice of a type of an appliance to be used for your treatment during the pandemic would you go for: | Aligners | 44 | 29% |
Fixed braces | 84 | 55% | |
Unanswered | 26 | 17% |