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
- The examinee will provide digital patient records in
printed form. 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 interim casts are acceptable only between Phase 1 and Phase 2 treatment provided all appliances are removed prior to impression taking.
- For the upcoming clinical exam, the ABO is prepared to accept pretreatment and allowable interim digital casts in the following formats: OrthoCAD Vers 3.0047 and GeoDigm emodel. OrthoCAD may be downloaded from Cadent's website and self-scored for DI. Contact GeoDigm directly to request a scoring for DI.
- Submit allowable pretreatment and interim digital casts via upload at Online Services - Clinical Exam Electronic Submission. Digital models 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.
- Digital interim casts are not acceptable for pre-surgical study casts.
- 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 computer generated images are unacceptable.
- ABO Directors are actively pursuing the
implementation of an automatic scoring system for all digital casts.