Trial reportBMC oral health2026
Efficacy of a teledentistry-based follow-up approach for monitoring oral health in patients with head and neck cancer after radiotherapy: a noninferiority randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in BMC oral health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate the efficacy of a teledentistry-based follow-up approach compared with standard in-person follow-up for monitoring oral health among patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) after the completion of radiotherapy, using a noninferiority framework.
methodsIn this two-arm, noninferiority randomized controlled trial, teledentistry was compared with standard in-person follow-up in patients with HNC after the completion of radiotherapy. The participants were randomized 1:1 and followed up at 1, 3, and 6 months. For teledentistry, a secure digital platform incorporating live video and self-photography was used. The primary outcomes were the percentage of tooth surfaces with plaque (plaque index) and bleeding on probing. The secondary outcomes were radiotherapy-related oral complications (i.e., dental caries incidence, trismus assessed via maximal mouth opening, mucositis severity, xerostomia severity, and osteoradionecrosis incidence) and patient-reported measures, including oral health-related quality of life (Oral Health Impact Profile, OHIP-14) and patient satisfaction. Noninferiority was assessed using analysis of covariance and risk difference calculations, comparing outcomes between groups based on data collected 2 weeks after the 6-month follow-up. A predefined noninferiority margin of 15%, representing the maximum clinically acceptable difference between groups, was applied with 95% confidence intervals (CI).
resultsTwenty-seven participants completed the study (teledentistry group: n = 14; standard group: n = 13), with no statistically significant baseline differences. Teledentistry was noninferior to standard follow-up for the plaque index (mean difference: 1.9% points; 95% CI [- 8.6, 12.4]) and bleeding on probing (mean difference: -2.2% points; 95% CI [- 17.2, 12.8]). The incidence of osteoradionecrosis was also noninferior (risk difference: -0.15; 95% CI [- 0.35, 0.04]). Patient satisfaction was high across the groups. Outcomes related to other radiotherapy-related oral complications and oral health-related quality of life were inconclusive.
conclusionTeledentistry appears to be a feasible and noninferior follow-up modality for patients with HNC during the initial 6 months after radiotherapy.
trial registrationTCTR20221008001, registered on October 8, 2022.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.