Chapter 37 - Electronic Dental Records and the Role of Health Information Technology in Dentistry

Abstract

Dental practices use electronic dental records (EDR) for patient care to a significant and rapidly rising degree. While computers primarily automated administrative and financial functions early on, they now increasingly support clinical patient documentation, digital radiographs, intraoral oral images, decision support, and oral disease risk assessments. This shift in EDR use generates vast amounts of patient data that could provide significant benefits to clinicians and researchers. Until now, clinicians have been able to track only individual patient outcomes through paper-based records. However, the last decade has seen increasing research leveraging electronic EDR to characterize oral disease status, and disease progression and assess treatment outcomes.