Introduction: Teledentistry is the practice of using video conferencing technologies to diagnose and provide advice about treatment over a distance and it allows collaboration of various dental professionals regarding consultations and opinions. It is beneficial in getting distant consultations from professionals of various branches. The present study is aimed at assessing the knowledge, attitude and awareness on teledentistry among dental students. Materials and methods: The present study is a questionnaire based study which consists of a set of 12 questions. Questions were distributed to undergraduates and postgraduates of Saveetha dental college using online survey. Responses were collected, entered in the MS Excel sheet and transferred to SPSS for analysis. Descriptive statistics were expressed by means of frequency and percentage. Chi Square test was used to find the association between the variables. P value less than 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Results 47% postgraduates and 45.5% undergraduates are aware of the use of telecommunication in screening and diagnosis; 48.5% Postgraduates and 42.5% undergraduates are aware of the fact that teledentistry is useful in gaining knowledge from foreign delegates by means of webinars and for patient diagnosis and screening. 37% postgraduates and 21% undergraduates are aware that teledentistry can be utilised by dentists to collaborate with doctors from other fields. Chi square test was done and P value was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05) in all cases but it was found to be non significant (p>0.05) in case of association of qualification and enhancement of teledentistry in prosthetic works. Conclusion: Most of the respondents were aware of teledentistry and its applications in dentistry but still some of them are not aware of it. Hence awareness should be made in this field to overcome difficulties in diagnosis and providing oral care.

Teledentistry, Telecommunication, Consultation, Innovative analysis