EMR Benefits: EDR

An electronic dental record(EDR) is a patient’s dental record (or chart) that is available through an electronic interface. EDR's have the capabilities to provide the oral health professional with the capacity for paperless charting for their patients, to include details such as any procedures, diagnoses, clinical notes, x-rays, periodontal charting, soft tissue findings, and restorations and active dental diseases. EDR is customized to deal with the unique characteristics of treating patients’ teeth. Dentistry involves many lab and imaging tests, so EDR's receive and analyze the large amounts of data generated for each patient. Specifically, integration with panelipse and other x-ray imaging equipment help improve workflow through automatic uploading of images directly to a patient’s file. Many dental procedures involve the use of anesthesia. Because of this,EDR's may have similar features to anesthesia-specific software. Slight differences in such factors as body weight, drug interactivity, and age influence what type and how anesthesia is administered so an EDR must be able to capture all this type of data. Some EDR's may also have a robust alert system capable of notifying the dentists of any potential adverse drug reactions or allergies prior to the delivery of anesthesia or the prescribing of medications.