Introduction

Dentistry is no longer a traditional discipline of healthcare where patients are treated using only dental instruments and devices.  Computers are now integrated into the dental office and growing exponentially in number and frequency of use.  Like medicine, a new field, "Dental Informatics," has emerged and continues to develop in dentistry.  It combines computer technology with dentistry in order to create a basis for research and to solve real-world problems in oral healthcare using computer applications. 

There is a difference between informatics and "information technology" (IT).  The first focuses on the research and "making of" information models and computer applications, while the latter is related to the implementation and application of computed technology and telecommunications respectively. 

The successful integration of electronic technology into dental healthcare practice, education, and research is comparable to the mission of medical informatics.  Schleyer and Spallek reviewed this new field recently¹ and identified parallels to medical informatics as well as specific computer applications in clinical care, education, and research in dentistry.

There are several computer applications used in medicine to assist physicians in coping with their daily work.  Although it is good to learn from the uses of information technology in medicine, most of the functionality is not transferable to dentistry.  Dental practice differs significantly from medical practice; hence, dentistry needs to develop its own computerized solutions to effective information utilization. 

This paper will describe the usage of captured data as it relates to the range of patient care activities in dental practice including prosthodontic practice.  The ongoing development of Clinical Decision Support (CDS) systems as part of the Electronic Oral Health Record (EOHR) offers the corresponding support that can be provided using computer technology.  Such a relationship depends on the utilization of a common standardized structure for the EOHR that has been established by the American Dental Association's (ADA) standard series 1000.¹⁸

The implementation of technology-independent concepts and thought processes will be examined, and some of the current technology that may benefit the practitioner's usage of those concepts in the patient care process will be noted in sections to follow.  The intent is also to introduce the reader to the preliminary concepts of the work in progress on the development and basic ideas of the Markov Model for prosthodontic treatment² and its continuation of the probabilistic causal approach to the Dental Clinical Advisory System.³

Click Here To Navigate Within Article >> Abstract Introduction Decision-Making Models Expert Systems For Clinical Decision-Making The EOHR and Capturing Patient Care Data Diagnostic Technology Treatment Planning, Pretreatment, Treatment Dental Implications Recall and Outlook Conclusion References About the Author
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Citation Number: Vol. 3, No. 1, Page 028