Teledentistry in the United States: a new horizon of dental care.

Teledentistry has been developing since 1994 as a means to allow dental professionals to communicate with one another over long distances. It allows collaboration by multiple practitioners regarding a patient and the necessary treatment for this patient. Teledentistry can be greatly utilized with rural communities or those of underserved populations. It would increase the accessibility of specialists, besides decreasing time and cost associated with specialty consultations. Real-time videoconferencing and store and forward techniques are the mostly commonly used methodologies for teledentistry. Teledentistry will become more widely seen and utilized by the increase in digital media found in dental practices.