New Technologies for Periodontal Diagnostic Recording - Quality Assurance, Voice Control

Objectives:

Periodontal relevant diagnostic findings are numerous and complex. It is difficult to study multiple programs and sheets to get an overview on the periodontal circumstances of a patient. When recording diagnostic findings the need to memorize a lot of information and switch often between patient and paper recording document is inefficient. This is especially true for clinical studies when no assistant is available.

Against this background the aim was to develop a scientific and practical periodontal chart that contains all periodontal relevant information on one document so the whole status can be viewed at once. It should be clearly organized and practical to use. Moreover it should be possible to dictate the findings to a computer system that is network enabled.

Methods:

The programming was done on development tools from Adobe Systems and tested in the CharitéCentrum for Dentistry, Berlin and the Dental School of Medical Faculty, Dresden.

Results:

A software was developed to record and illustrate all periodontal findings in one clearly organized and clear laid out document via voice control. The examiner can than concentrate on the patient during the examination, dictate the findings and navigate through the whole mouth by talking to the computer. When a dubiety occurs, the examiner can ask for clarification and the computer will respond for accuracy assurance.

Conclusion:

The developed software is a practical tool, offers the possibility to record the findings via voice control and illustrates all periodontal findings in one clearly laid out document. Memorization of several findings in order to write or type them later is no longer necessary. Moreover the software seems to be very save. It repeats every single finding so the examiner can be sure the computer understood the spoken words correctly. The software is network enabled and could be used for multi centre studies.