Your Health Info (Just) You…? The implications of tech innovations in dental care

Everything has gotten a little bit easier to access these days.

Whether it’s a meal from Ubereats, or deliveries sent right to your doorstep, or a smart toothbrush that sums up your brushing habits into a handy app—technology has helped make things more convenient and take less time. We have separate anxiety when we are without our smart phones.

Digital health is a growing field which includes mobile health (mHealth), health information technology (IT), wearable devices, telehealth and personalized medicine. New technologies give health care providers a more comprehensive view of patient health through access to data. On the other hand, patients are more in control over their health.

These advancements have the potential to grant individuals the ability to enhance their understanding of personal well-being, enabling wiser choices. Additionally, they offer fresh avenues to promote early detection, prevention of severe ailments, and the effective monitoring of disorders beyond the realms of conventional healthcare environments.

But nothing is all roses. The thorn in this case—the catch—might be hidden in the “Terms and Conditions” of the things we use on a daily basis. When we click “accept” on these terms, we can be unknowingly giving away much more than we originally realize.

Take a simple smartphone app, for instance, where you can upload data on your brushing habits and receive feedback. It might be digitally linked to your toothbrush, or it might be a manual entry system.

Nonetheless, as consumers who may not exactly know the intricate back end algorithms, how do we know information entered is not shared with others?What are some of the implications of this type of health data being shared?

As a mother of two children, I welcome an app to measure brushing compliance. As a pediatric dentist, I love to be able to provide feedback on brushing techniques and areas which need more attention.

As a researcher, I appreciate big data in validating the efficacy between manual Vs electric toothbrush, especially those that have microsensors to measure acidity and demineralization.

As a consumer though, I am leery that my preference is sold to third parties like data management groups.I would prefer not to be a target of hyper-specific advertisements and have random ads popping up on my text and my email.

And on an even deeper layer, as a subscriber of health insurance, I certainly am opposed to my insurance companies tethering my premium with my brushing frequency. As an overthinker, I would worry even if the company doesn’t directly sell the information to a third party, the information could be hacked. After all, even big giants like Microsoft (and many other companies) have suffered data breaches in the past.

Canada has one major federal law that addresses these concerns: the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA). Some provinces mirror PHIPA with provincial laws of their own. But in general, PHIPA relies on the distinction between implied and implicit consent to limit the sharing of info.

What are some specific ways to protect from all this? For starters, we can think twice when it comes to opting into the “everything connected” model of certain products like smart watches, smart fridges, and even smart toothbrushes. Does everything really need to be digitized and integrated into these aspects of our lives?

Another tip is to think (and read) twice before accepting the terms & conditions of products or services that we usually wouldn’t glance at more than once. The fine print can sometimes reveal things you may not have known about how they treat your data.

There are clear advantages in healthcare tech, from providing telehealth appointments which facilitate remote communities to seek care, to smart sensors on dental equipment notifying the manufacturer when services are due!

Don’t be afraid to reach for an electric device if it genuinely helps make healthy habits easier for you; but next time when downloading an app on our phones, we may want to slow down and read the fine print so we don’t accidentally give away implicit consent with the click of a button.