Patent ID: 7523044

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for providing a dental-related product or service from a retail location where a licensed dentist is not physically present, the method comprising: receiving from a requesting computer over a data communications network, a dental-related image of a customer taken by at least one staff member at the retail location and a request for a dental-related product or service; identifying the licensed dentist in response to receipt of at least the request; forwarding the dental-related image and the request to a doctor computer accessible by the identified dentist over the data communications network; receiving a message from the dentist over the data communications network approving or denying the request for the dental-related product or service, the message being transmitted in response to review of the dental-related image by the dentist; forwarding the message to the requesting computer, wherein the message is displayed on the requesting computer for prompting the at least one staff member at the retail location to dispense the dental-related product or service from the retail location if the message is a message approving the request for the dental-related product or service, and for prompting the at least one staff member at the retail location to not dispense the dental-related product or service from the retail location if the message is a message denying the request for the dental-related product or service; receiving from the doctor computer over the data communications network identification of a particular type of specialty for referring the customer; identifying a list of doctors associated with the identified specialty; transmitting by a server a first notification to at least one doctor in the list; determining by the server whether a predetermined amount of time has elapsed without a response to the first notification before transmitting a second notification; and automatically establishing a videoconference session between the requesting computer and a responsive doctor computer accessible by at least one of the doctors in the list.