A Robust Dental Patient Health Portal Is an Effective Tool for Improving the Oral Health of Patients

The authors provide a comprehensive and thorough literature review describing the benefits, facilitators, and barriers of patient health portals (PHPs) in dentistry and medicine. The authors received IRB approval for conducting a cross-sectional study of 325 adult dental patients attending the University of California, San Francisco, Dental Center over a 4-month period from July to October 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. They stated that “despite the presence of a dental PHP at the academic dental center, its availability has not been marketed to patients owing to its limited functionality and, therefore, it is underused.” The study intended to “understand patients’ desired content from and overall perception about dental PHPs.”

An English language questionnaire was modified from a previously published similar study. The questionnaire was completed in person in the clinic with an estimated 50% response rate. Overall, three-quarters of the participants expressed an interest in accessing their oral healthcare information via a dental PHP and 70% wanted access to oral health topics and education via a dental PHP. The top three desired oral healthcare information contents from a dental PHP were a list of completed dental procedures, past dental visit summaries, and the date of their last dental visit. More than half of the respondents wanted as much information as possible. The top three desired oral health topics from a dental PHP were the signs of gingival disease and proper management, caries prevention, and proper toothbrushing and flossing techniques. When asked about the format of the oral health topic presentation, a majority of the respondents wanted videos, pictures, and words. The advantages of dental PHPs were the patients' ability to monitor their dental health, improve communication with their providers, and help them prepare for each dental visit. Concerns over privacy breaches or security were expressed by half the respondents but less so by those already comfortable with technology.

The study supports similar findings from other studies. The authors acknowledged the limitations of the study in being restricted to English-speaking patients attending a single US academic dental center. The online version of the article includes the questionnaire. The survey provides important information for designing an online patient portal for the dental center that should be of assistance to others.

Disclosure

Howard Pollick BDS, MPH, is a clinical professor in the same department as the authors.