What do we know about portable dental services? A scoping review

Background Delivering dental care to patients in their home or residential institutions is known as "portable dentistry". The demand for portable dental services is on the rise, but dentists remain reluctant to adopt portable practices. Objectives To explore the literature on portable dental services and understand (a) the process of planning and delivering portable dental services and (b) the benefits and challenges of portable dentistry for service providers and patients. Methods A systematic scoping search was conducted. We retrieved 3994 documents, 28 of which were included in the final synthesis. Three authors read the papers and conducted thematic content analyses independently. Results We present a synthesis of the literature and proposed a model of portable dentistry containing three levels with the patient is at the centre surrounded by concentric rings representing the dentist (dental team) and society. At each of these levels, our model is further subdivided into three components: 1) organisation of the service; 2) arrival and set-up of the service; and 3) delivery of the service. In addition, each level includes 1) human factors, which are related either to the dental professional or the patient; 2) non-human factors, which refer to either the equipment or the physical environment; and 3) financial factors, which are related to cost and remuneration. Conclusions We propose a model for portable dentistry that dentists and dental educators interested in this practice should find useful.