Application of Geographic Information System Marks a Revolutionary Change in Dental Sciences

Abstract

There is rapid development in science and its innovations. Consequently, today's dental science is a pure amalgamation of recent advances and applications. With this very conception, dental science has developed far way ahead. This combination and blending with various other sciences give a new meaning and beauty to today's dentistry.Among the recent inventions, there emerges geographic information system (GIS), which is a collection of computer hardware and software, geographic and tabular data, and personnel and knowledge in an organized manner that is designed to capture, store, manipulate, update, analyze, and display spatial data. The most significant and remarkable outcome in the history of medical and dental sciences is the application of GIS and its analysis in the healthcare system.The potential of GIS is well accepted and its full use in healthcare services is yet to be explored. It is a tool that links statistical and thematic data to geographic locations on maps and thus represents and symbolizes data in a visual format. The article gives a review of the various uses of GIS in the dental sciences. The adoption and recognition of GIS by oral healthcare researchers and policymakers will be a major revolutionize pace in the dental health services systems.