An intelligent system for assessment of orthodontic treatment outcome using fuzzy union rule configuration

It is crucial to objectively assess orthodontic treatment outcome for patients, orthodontists, and healthcare providers. Orthodontists have developed several occlusal indices during the past few decades to evaluate treatment success. These indices suffer from several limitations including a crisp decision making criterion that sometimes contradicts human intuition. We propose use of fuzzy logic for assessing orthodontic treatment outcome. Despite the great capabilities of fuzzy logic in medical fields, its applications in the field of orthodontics have been overlooked. We develop an expert system based on fuzzy reasoning that can assess orthodontic treatment outcome that is close to human perception. We examine its reliability by comparing the results with the opinion of a panel of expert orthodontists.

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