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. 2011 Jan;75(1):68-76.

The development of a dental diagnostic terminology

Elsbeth Kalenderian  1 , Rachel L Ramoni, Joel M White, Meta E Schoonheim-Klein, Paul C Stark, Nicole S Kimmes, Gregory G Zeller, George P Willis, Muhammad F Walji
Affiliations

The development of a dental diagnostic terminology

Elsbeth Kalenderian et al. J Dent Educ. 2011 Jan.

Abstract

There is no commonly accepted standardized terminology for oral diagnoses. The purpose of this article is to report the development of a standardized dental diagnostic terminology by a work group of dental faculty members. The work group developed guiding principles for decision making and adhered to principles of terminology development. The members used an iterative process to develop a terminology incorporating concepts represented in the Toronto/University of California, San Francisco/Creighton University and International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9/10 codes and periodontal and endodontic diagnoses. Domain experts were consulted to develop a final list of diagnostic terms. A structure was developed, consisting of thirteen categories, seventy-eight subcategories, and 1,158 diagnostic terms, hierarchically organized and mappable to other terminologies and ontologies. Use of this standardized diagnostic terminology will reinforce the diagnosis-treatment link and will facilitate clinical research, quality assurance, and patient communication. Future work will focus on implementation and approaches to enhance the validity and reliability of diagnostic term utilization.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Development process for EZcodes
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of sources for the final EZcodes terminology
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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