data elements used in dental care settings in selected countries and designing a model for iran

introduction: oral diseases are the most prevalent diseases probable at any age. they are chronic in nature and expensive to care.  accurate, comprehensive, well-structured, well-managed data is required to control and prevent oral diseases, clinical audit, quality of patient care, and administrative, financial, research and legal goals fulfillment we need. in dentistry, data collection would provide all necessary information for the dentist to make an accurate diagnosis of the patient's condition. clinical data is fundamental to the process of dental care, contributes to diagnosis, planning and correct sequencing of treatment. this research was performed to evaluate data elements used in dental care setting in america, britain and india and present a pattern for iran. methods: in an applied, descriptive study, first a situational analysis of data elements in 22 dental care settings affiliated to shahid beheshti, tehran and iran universities was performed in 2007. based on the needs of the country, a dental data element model was suggested for iran. the model was then confirmed through delphi technique by 30 authorities. results: situational analysis showed data collection and dental data elements to face numerous limitations. there was no accurate and appropriate data element model for dental data collection. therefore, a model for dental data collection was designed for iran based on the models in america, england and india. after applying delphi technique, the model was approved with a 73-100% agreement. conclusion: designing and implementing dental data elements for data collection in iran is advised to promote quality of patient care, and to control and prevent oral diseases.