Case Report Preparation
 
Digital Record Requirements

GENERAL STATEMENT OF POLICY

The ABO's position on digital records, including but not limited to photographs, radiographic images and study casts is that it is the examinee's responsibility to substantiate the integrity of the records. The overall goal of records is to accurately represent the patient's clinical presentation at the beginning and end of treatment. It is therefore the examinee's responsibility to ensure that records production practices, techniques and technologies are accurate, unaltered, and satisfy the ABO standards. Any steps in processing the data for purposes of clarification, presentation, analysis or otherwise should not bias, interfere with, and/or misrepresent the authentic anatomy of the patient.

Examinees are reminded that all records are legal documents and must be unaltered in anatomical/diagnostic content.

Examinees will prepare digital patient records using the same case report preparation for hard copy records published on this website.

VENDOR SOLUTIONS

Any commercial enterprise offering a product or service intended to aid the examinee in completing the Clinical Examination must accompany the offering with the following statements:

This product is compatible with current standards for submission of case reports to The American Board of Orthodontics as published at www.americanboardortho.com. **

**The American Board of Orthodontics has not reviewed or tested this product and does not endorse, guarantee, or warrant its performance or compatibility with ABO standards.

Examinees using software to produce digital images for case submission are expected to have thorough knowledge of such programs and should not contact the ABO to address questions regarding the use of the software.

PRESENTATION OF DIGITAL RECORDS IN PRINTED FORM

  • Examinees presenting cases in notebook format will print their digital records. Insert printed pages into the case report notebook according to assembly instructions.
  • Photographs and radiographs will be printed on photo glossy paper, with an ABO record identification label affixed to each page.
  • Tracings and composite tracings, in 1:1 ratio to the cephalometric radiograph, will be printed on transparent media with an ABO record identification label affixed to each page.
    • Note: Computer technology may be used to produce ceph tracings and superimpositions but the examinee will be responsible for the accuracy of software renderings. The ABO welcomes and encourages hand-traced cephalograms and manual superimpositions so both the examinee and the board can access such accuracy.The examinee may be asked to produce hand-traced superimpositions to verify accuracy.

DIGITAL CASTS

  • Digital pretreatment casts are acceptable provided that the digital format is supported by software to view and measure the digital casts for Discrepancy Index (DI) in compliance with ABO case submission criteria.
  • Digital presurgical casts are acceptable**.
  • Digital interim casts are acceptable** between Phase 1 and Phase 2 treatment provided all active appliances are removed prior to impression taking.
  • ** The ABO is prepared to accept allowable digital casts in the following formats: OrthoCAD Vers 3.25 or later, GeoDigm eModel and Orametrix SureSmile. If your pretreatment model can be converted to STL, please call the ABO central office for advice.
    • Use OrthoCAD's built-in DI scoring tool; save your scoring with the digital model.
    • The examinee using eModel may request DI-scored digital models by contacting GeoDigm directly.
    • Method for transferring digital SureSmile models to the ABO will be announced at a later date.
    • The examinee is responsible for all electronic scoring, whether self-scored or company-scored.
  • Submit allowable digital casts via upload at Online Services - Clinical Exam Electronic Submission. You will browse for and upload digital casts which have a filename that is appended with your vendor's proprietary format. OrthoCAD is .3dm; emodel is .emz. Digital casts will not be accepted on portable media.
  • NOTE: An accurate and stable occlusal registration (maximum intercuspation) for all digital casts is best achieved by using polyvinylsiloxane (PVS) bite registration material.
  • Post-treatment digital casts are not acceptable at the current time.
    • Note: The Board requires that final casts be a direct plaster/stone reproduction of the occlusal result, trimmed to ABO specifications, and/or mounted in centric relation, after intraoral impressions are produced. Stereolithic or other reconstructed casts created from digital formats are unacceptable.
  • ABO Directors are actively pursuing the implementation of an automatic scoring system for all digital casts.
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