Maltese specialist launches app in UK to help patients with chronic facial pain
Surgeon Ross Elledge said naming the app after the Maltese word for jaw was 'irresistible'
A Maltese surgeon has launched an app in the UK which offers advice and guidance to patients with chronic facial pain.
The ‘XEDAQ’ app is the brainchild of University of Malta alumnus and consultant maxillofacial surgeon Ross Elledge, who said the app had been designed to give patients a “voice, sustained support and access to reliable information”.
He said the app would empower patients to “actively shape their recovery rather than feel dismissed or isolated”.
The app provides access to short videos, audio files and articles about the condition, daily questionnaires to help assess patients’ pain and mood, and listings for nearby specialists. Data recorded by the app can also be used to help specialists.
Chronic facial pain caused by temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) – causing symptoms including jaw locking and difficulty chewing – can cause depression and anxiety and is thought to affect one third of the world’s population, a press statement announcing the app said.
Elledge, an UoM dental school graduate, said using the Maltese word for jaw (“xedaq”) was “somewhat irresistible for me”.
While noting that “technology can’t replace clinicians,” he said it could “radically enhance how care is delivered... With smartphones in nearly every pocket, patients now have the power to take charge of their own health”.
“XEDAQ is our way of making that possible, ethically and effectively.”
Elledge, who attended St Aloysius College, graduated top of class at UoM in 2003 and worked for the health service in Malta before moving to the UK.
He holds the post of Consultant in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.