September JADA examines dental sealant quality measures

August 29, 2018 Dental quality measures originally designed for use with billing data may not provide the most accurate picture of how a practice is doing with respect to the quality of care delivered to patients, according to the cover story of the September issue of The Journal of the American Dental Association.

For the article "Assessing the Validity of Existing Dental Sealant Quality Measures," authors compared the performance of two sealant quality measures against a manual audit of charts to identify measurement gaps that may be filled by using data from electronic health records.

Researchers concluded that the Dental Quality Alliance sealant measure and the Oregon Health Authority sealant measure led to underestimation of the care delivered from a practice perspective.

"It is really important to document the care delivered as completely as possible in the electronic health record," said Muhammad Walji, Ph.D., corresponding author of the article. "We can then use these data for more accurately measuring quality. Quality measurement is an important first step in our quest for continuous improvement."

To read the full article, visit JADA.ADA.org.

Other highlights of the September issue include a systematic review and meta-analysis looking at how much impacted canines are associated with root resorption of the adjacent tooth using cone-beam computed tomography; a take on clinical decision-making in the era of evidence-based dentistry; and a case report looking at treatment of a rare case of pyoderma gangrenosum with aggressive periodontal disease.

Each month, JADA articles are published online at JADA.ADA.org in advance of the print publication.