Week 4: Dental Charting

Welcome to week 4! This week you will spend some time reviewing earlier concepts about the teeth including surfaces and labelling, and learn about the dental chart.

Review

Dental charting combines information from week 2 (tooth labelling) and week 3 (dental conditions and procedures).

Prior to moving forward, go back to weeks 2 & 3 in your course pack to complete the review exercises. This will ensure you have a strong foundation heading into dental charting!

Key Components of the Dental Chart

  • Patient registration forms (medical and dental history, consent forms)
  • Diagnosis and treatment plan documents
  • Radiographs (x-rays)
  • Financial information including private insurance
  • Odontograms (chart used to indicate a client’s existing and planned dental conditions and procedures)

Sample Dental Chart

This screen capture of a dental chart on Wikipedia Commons [opens new tab] includes several of the elements outlined above.

Dental Records

Odontogram Views

There are 3 primary views on odontograms

  • Facial/buccal: how the tooth appears at the front
  • Occlusal/incisal: how the tooth appears from the biting surface
  • Lingual: how the tooth appears from the tongue
An image of a molar including the root from three perspectives found on dental charts: lingual at top, occlusal at centre, facial at bottom.
Credit: Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA

Sample Odontogram

Image of the complete set off teeth, with the front and top views of each teeth in a row, with maxillary or upper teeth across the top (numbered 18 to 11 and 21 to 28) and mandibular or lower teeth across the bottom (numbered 48 to 41 and 31 to 38).
Credit: Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA

Charting Symbols

Table 2. Common Charting Symbols and their Corresponding Abbreviations and Meanings
Symbol: Description: Abbreviation: Meaning:
 

Line drawing of tooth on dental chart with the crown filled in by blue horizontal lines
Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA

 

 Blue shading Am Amalgam filling present
 

Line drawing of three views of molar from dental chart, with section of green shading on surface.
Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA

 

 Tan/green shading Cr Composite resin filling present
 

Line drawing of three views of molar from dental chart, with section of red shading on surface.
Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA

 

 Red shading n/a Caries – tooth needs future filling
 

Line drawing of three views of molar from dental chart, with section of red dots on surface.
Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA

 

 Red dots incip Incipient caries (early decay)
Line drawing of three views of three molars from dental chart, with letter S noted on two molar's occlusal view.
Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA

 
n/a
 S Dental sealant was applied
 

Line drawing of two teeth on dental chart with three views; a vertical blue line is drawn through the tooth views on left and two crossed blue lines are drawn through tooth views on right.
Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA

 

 An X through the whole tooth n/a Tooth is missing/has been extracted
 

Line drawing of molar with red line from tip of root to crown on each root.
Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA

 

 2 red lines through the root RCT Root canal therapy
 

Line drawing of molar with red circle on tip of one root.
Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA

 

 Small red circle at the base of the root n/a Abscess
 

Line drawing of two teeth connected by single lines across the top of the crown.
Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA

 

 Multiple teeth connected with a line n/a A bridge
 

Line drawing of tooth on dental chart with an arrow on the left side, pointing up from the middle of the root to above the crown.
Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA

 

 An arrow pointing towards the crown of the tooth n/a An over-erupted tooth
 

Line drawing of tooth on a dental chart with an arrow pointing from the right root tip to the right.
Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA

 

 An arrow pointing away from the midline of the tooth n/a Shows the direction of a tooth which is drifting
 

Line drawing of tooth on dental chart with the crown outlined in blue.
Conestoga College CC BY-NC-SA
 Blue outline of the facial surface of the tooth n/a Veneer present

 

References

Torres, H. O., Ehrlich, A., Bird, D. & Dietz, E. (2009). Modern dental assisting (9th ed.). W.B. Saunders Company.

Baillargeon, S. (2008). Dental office administration. Thomson Nelson.

License

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Dental & Wellness Office Administration, 2nd edition Copyright © 2024 by Conestoga College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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