Digital and Remote Oral Health Delivery for Underserved and Justice-Involved Populations: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Background: In prisons, rural areas and safety-net services, dental care is limited less by clinical knowledge than by professional time and physical access. Digital and remote delivery could extend preventive reach, but its evidence has not been mapped.
Methods: This scoping review followed the Arksey and O’Malley framework with later refinements and was reported to PRISMA-ScR. Google Scholar and web and agency sources were searched on 16 October 2026, with citation and targeted searching. Sources on teledentistry, prediction of dental service need, surveillance and informatics, or governance and equity were charted by domain and evidence type.
Results: Thirty-five sources were included: twelve on teledentistry and remote consultation, ten on risk stratification and prediction, six on surveillance and informatics, and seven on governance, equity and access. Custodial evidence was limited to three French teledentistry studies, which showed feasible intake screening of 651 detainees but only moderate agreement between remote and in-person urgency ratings. Prediction models for dental service use reached C-statistics of 0.69 to 0.73, mostly without external validation. United States oral health surveillance indicators do not cover people in custody.
Conclusions: Digital delivery can extend reach in custody and underserved settings, but outcome evidence is sparse. Priorities are controlled evaluation of asynchronous teledentistry, externally validated and calibrated risk models, and inclusion of custodial populations in surveillance.