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<article xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" dtd-version="1.0" article-type="dentistry" lang="en">
  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">JOHS</journal-id>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="nlm-ta">Journ of Health Scien</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title>Journal of HealthCare Sciences</journal-title>
        <abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="pubmed">Journ of Health Scien</abbrev-journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <issn pub-type="ppub">2231-2196</issn>
      <issn pub-type="opub">0975-5241</issn>
      <publisher>
        <publisher-name>Radiance Research Academy</publisher-name>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">496</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">http://dx.doi.org/10.52533/JOHS.2025.51231</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi-url"/>
      <article-categories>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
          <subject>Dentistry</subject>
        </subj-group>
      </article-categories>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Use of Tele dentistry for Oral Health Education and Caries Risk Reduction in Rural Pediatric Populations: A Systematic Review&#13;
</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Alamoudi</surname>
            <given-names>Raed Mohammed</given-names>
          </name>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Alharbi</surname>
            <given-names>Abdulaziz Hamad</given-names>
          </name>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Zafer</surname>
            <given-names>Roaa Mubarak</given-names>
          </name>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Aldaghriry</surname>
            <given-names>Waad Khalid</given-names>
          </name>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Alrashidi</surname>
            <given-names>Albandari Ghazi</given-names>
          </name>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Aladwani</surname>
            <given-names>Waad Ibrahim</given-names>
          </name>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Alkhamis</surname>
            <given-names>Ali Hussain</given-names>
          </name>
        </contrib>
      </contrib-group>
      <pub-date pub-type="ppub">
        <day>31</day>
        <month>12</month>
        <year>2025</year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>5</volume>
      <issue>12</issue>
      <fpage>952</fpage>
      <lpage>963</lpage>
      <permissions>
        <copyright-statement>This article is copyright of Popeye Publishing, 2009</copyright-statement>
        <copyright-year>2009</copyright-year>
        <license license-type="open-access" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">
          <license-p>This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Licence. You may share and adapt the material, but must give appropriate credit to the source, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made.</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>
      <abstract>
        <p>Teledentistry effectively enhances pediatric oral health by providing remote education, early caries detection through photos/video, and behavioral guidance, significantly improving access in underserved areas and reducing travel burdens for families. This systematic review aims to investigate the use of teledentistry for oral health education and caries risk reduction in rural pediatric populations. A systematic search of studies published in PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus was completed from the earliest available date until December 24, 2025, without geographic restriction. Major outcomes of interest included oral health education–related outcomes and caries-related outcomes. The target population was the pediatric population under 18 years who reside in rural, underserved, remote, or low-resource areas. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale tool was used to assess the quality and risk of bias in non-randomized observational studies, and the quasi-experimental studies were assessed using the ROBINS-I tool. Ten studies were included in the systematic review. The reviewed evidence demonstrates that teledentistry is a reliable and effective approach for pediatric oral health screening, showing high agreement with conventional clinical examinations across key diagnostic indices. Most studies reported strong to excellent inter-method reliability and high specificity, although sensitivity, particularly for early carious lesions, was more variable, indicating that teledentistry is best suited for screening, triage, and referral rather than definitive diagnosis. Beyond diagnostics, teledentistry-based educational interventions significantly improved oral health knowledge, caregiver behaviors, and, in some cases, clinical outcomes. Teledentistry is a reliable and effective tool for pediatric oral health screening, education, and referral. While best suited for screening and triage rather than definitive diagnosis, it improves access to care, supports early detection of caries, and helps address oral health disparities in underserved pediatric populations.&#13;
</p>
      </abstract>
      <kwd-group>
        <kwd>tele dentistry</kwd>
        <kwd> caries risk</kwd>
        <kwd> pediatric</kwd>
        <kwd> children</kwd>
        <kwd> rural</kwd>
        <kwd> underserved</kwd>
      </kwd-group>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
</article>