Summary
Objectives:
Dentistry is a discipline with two properties that pose a serious challenge to knowledge
based decision support: (1) It has to integrate six sub-disciplines ranging from conservative
measures to invasive disciplines, such as implantology; (2) A plan may have to cover
a complex treatment often lasting one year or more. It is the aim of the AIDA-project1 to set up a planning strategy that is suited to incorporate all dental peculiarities
in one methodology.
Methods:
Generic tasks, that can be assigned to individual persons involved in dental treatment,
have been designed with the help of KADS. They have been integrated into a planning
super-structure for the planning of all dental solution alternatives, that can principally
be applied on the basis of the given patient status.
Results:
Besides an evaluation of the implemented planning system itself, it has been evaluated
how well the development is supported by (1) knowledge-engineering methods and (2)
object-oriented methods.
Conclusion:
Common knowledge-based tools are not powerful enough for the planning of complex
dental constructions. Therefore, a solution combining object-oriented and knowledge-based
methods is proposed.
Keywords
Dentistry - decision making - theoretical models - knowledge - decision support techniques