1 Chapter I Introduction This chapter begins with descriptions of the phenomena underlying this research, followed by explanations of the research objectives and questions. Then the author briefly explains the research approach and methods suitable for this research. Key assumptions and limitations are also presented to round up the basic explanation of this research. At the end of this chapter, the author describes the writing structure so that readers can easily understand the writing flow and identify the parts of the writing. I.1 Background The order of people's lives is experiencing such great distractions due to the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The viruses indiscriminately threaten the lives of all levels of society, and it is no longer counted the enormous losses caused. Human activities are trapped and rapidly changing in order to survive (Sankaran & Weiss, 2021). This phenomenon requires people to adapt quickly to unimaginable situations. Something previously considered impossible has become realistic and demands to be done, and technology has become crucial in dealing with this condition (De’ et al., 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has become a challenging race for the creation of new technologies in the health sector to combat this novel virus. In this fourth industrial revolution era, it has become possible to quickly produce various customized goods and services to satisfy human needs. Industry 4.0 products are believed to offer better technological solutions for common issues related to current health problems (Javaid et al., 2020). Telemedicine is a manifestation of the use of technology in overcoming the many obstacles in the healthcare system during pandemic conditions. Telemedicine is a silencer for public anxiety about the high and fast rate of disease transmission. This service enables the public to receive physicians' consultations while remaining safe at a distance (Haleem et al., 2021). Telemedicine is the term that refers to medical care delivered by healthcare professionals using information technology from a distance with a patient-centered approach (Ramírez- Correa et al., 2020). It is widely known for improving the quality and performance of emergency services, speeding up diagnosis, and lowering costs for physicians and patients by streamlining clinical procedures and lowering travel costs to health facilities (Haleem et al., 2 2021). The demand for telemedicine has steadily but progressively increased, especially during the pandemic. It can be reflected in various medical specialties enhancing their services with telemedicine to overcome obstacles and limitations in serving patients (Rahaman, 2021; Drago et al., 2023; Octavius & Hwei, 2021). Dentistry is one of the specialties that apply telemedicine massively. Telemedicine in dentistry is experiencing increasing demand during the pandemic (Maqsood et al., 2021). Telemedicine services in dentistry are commonly known as teledentistry. Teledentistry has the potential to become a practical solution to the pandemic's dental healthcare problems. It has been confirmed helpful in doing remote dental examinations, offering consultations, providing preventive dentistry, and recommending treatment plans (Kanmodi, 2020; Ghai, 2020). In addition to being a solution during the pandemic, teledentistry is also an answer to the problem of low public access to dental health services in several countries, such as Indonesia. This problem arises because of Indonesia's inadequate number of dentists and their uneven distribution. Based on data from a previous study by Gofur et al. in 2020, the ratio of dentists to the Indonesian population is 1:17,105 (Gofur et al., 2020). It is still far from the ideal dentist-to-population ratio stated by World Health Organization (WHO), which should be 1:7,500 (Yadav & Rawal, 2016). The high prevalence of dental and oral diseases in Indonesia is one of the significant impacts of the unequal distribution of dentists and access to healthcare services.