Proposed ADA standards available for comment by Feb. 13

The American Dental Association Standards Committee on Dental Informatics has approved the following document for circulation and comment:

• Proposed revised American Dental Association Technical Report No. 1087 for Essential Characteristics of Digital Oral Health Risk Assessment Resources: This technical report describes the essential characteristics, including the input and output elements, usability, security and privacy features, and interoperability of digital tools that collect clinician- or patient-entered information for the purposes of creating individual or population estimates of risk for specific oral diseases. Various potential use-cases for risk assessment software are described.

The ADA Standards Committee on Dental Products has approved the following documents for circulation and comment:

• Proposed ADA Technical Report No. 142 for CAD/CAM Guided Surgical Devices and Maxillofacial Prosthetics:  This technical report describes computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing technology methods used to produce predictable and accurate digitally produced surgical guides, such as those used for dental implant placement. It also provides digital production methods for the manufacture of maxillofacial prosthetic devices.
• Proposed American National Standards Institute/ADA Standard No. 176 for Accuracy of Computer-Aided Milling Machines in Dentistry: Dental CAD/CAM systems have been successfully used for the fabrication of indirect dental restorations such as inlays, crowns and bridges. The accuracy of these restorations is one of the most important factors for their clinical success. This standard provides a test method to evaluate the machining accuracy of computer-aided milling machines that are used as part of dental CAD/CAM systems and the information to be provided by the manufacturer. The methodology employs readily available 3D reverse engineering or part validation software.

The draft standards are available by calling the ADA toll-free number, ext. 2506, or sending an email request to standards@ada.org . The comment deadline is Feb. 13.

The ADA is accredited by the American National Standards Institute to develop national standards for products and information technology used by the dental profession and consumers. Currently, there are more than 100 national standards, and more are under development.