There’s a new Dentistry Standard that’s just been released. It’s the ISO 16498, “Dentistry – Minimal dental implant data set for clinical use.” This new ISO 16498 standard was developed to address the issue of keeping track of dental implants in patients.
Treatment of patients who have implants of course may go on for a long period of time. However, the implants themselves are device specific. This results in three areas of concern. One, can the implants (and any connecting components) be manipulated with newer tools? Two, if any further work is needed, are the new components compatible with the existing implanted material? And three, where are the devices implanted?
This means that for each implant, a provider should be keeping records. Why? Perhaps for research reasons, but certainly for forensic and medico-legal requirements and benefits.
The ISO 16498 was developed to set up a minimal data set that can facilitate the care of patients with dental implants. It provides guidelines for records that will contain the relevant details of the inserted device(s) and all associated components, etc. FYI: The new standard does not address any other clinical information that a provider would reasonably keep.
It is expected that the information identified in ISO 16498:2013 will be kept with the patient’s record for use by the patient and/or provider.
If you are involved in dentistry, you may also want to take a look at today’s Document Center Blog, New Dental Equipment Standards for the 2nd Quarter 2013. And if you didn’t catch our New Dentistry Standards for the 1st Quarter 2013, you may also find that useful.
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