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Dr. Nigel Shaun Matthews is an associate professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and director of telehealth at the UNC Adams School of Dentistry. He works in all clinical, teaching, research and scholarly activities in the department and pursues his clinical interests in the treatment of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) problems, trauma, dento-facial deformity (orthognathic) surgery and oral surgery.

Under Matthews’ direction and with a team from the UNC Adams School of Dentistry, North Carolinians now have access to virtual dental services during the COVID-19 outbreak, thanks to a new initiative. The school is now offering teledentistry services through a virtual helpline for patients across the state.

“It was a direct response of our school to really try and put in place a system whereby patients who have urgent or emergent dental needs would have a resource whereby they could seek advice, seek help, seek an opinion from someone at the school,” said Matthews. “Just because we’re in the middle of a pandemic of course doesn’t mean that people are going to stop having dental emergencies.”



Matthews explains that this patient-centered service helps eliminate the burden of dental emergencies on emergency departments, including UNC Health, during the COVID-19 outbreak, and provides a safe way for patients to manage dental care by connecting virtually to a provider from the comfort of their home.

“If the problem is so severe that it looks like the patient’s needs are best met by going to the nearest emergency department, they’re given advice to that effect,” said Matthews. “We also have a fantastic resource in a large database of practices all over North Carolina, the details of which we can provide patients with. If they happened to be calling from the other side of the state, they can go and see a provider or go to a local dental community clinic or an FQHC, which is a federally qualified health center, near to where they live, which is open and treating emergency cases.”

The Carolina Dentistry Virtual Oral Health Care Helpline is available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, by calling 919-537-3088.

Featured image via UNC-Chapel Hill



 

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