Perio Charting is a very flexible system designed to fit a periodontist's needs in order to quickly and accurately chart Perio. This article covers how to configure Perio-specific settings and how to best utilize Perio Charting.

Before continuing onwards, if you have not configured Restorative Charting, you will likely want to do so to ensure your tooth numbers are all configured appropriately for your office. You can review our set up guide located here.

And as always, MacPractice Support is standing by to assist you if you would like some help!

Setting Up Perio

Much like Restorative Charting, in order to best use Perio, it's helpful to spend some time configuring everything to meet the needs of your office and how you approach Perio Charting. Thankfully, MacPractice has some great customization options available.

First you will need to access a Perio Chart. Pull up a patient and create a new Perio Record by navigating to the Patients Ability > Dental tab, and then click "Perio Chart" in the sidebar.

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There are two areas where you can configure how the Perio Charting will work; Perio Charting Options, and Notation Points Options.

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Perio Charting Options

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To access Perio Charting Options, click on the gear icon as highlighted and annotated in the screenshot above.

The most important function in the Perio Charting Options is the ability to re-organize the input order. Here, you can drag and drop the blocks of tooth numbers to match the order in which your office would like to chart Perio.

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To do this, simply left click and drag the row to the order you desire.

US Tooth Number Chart

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International Tooth Number Chart

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For assistance, please contact MacPractice Support.

You can also set the threshold that determines whether a perio entry is highlighted due to a higher value set. By default, this is set to 5. So for example, if you enter a Gingival Margin Probing of 6 on a perio entry box, that box will highlight in red. But entries of 5 and below will not be highlighted.

Notation Points Options

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In Notation Points Options, you can customize which notations points are utilized in the Perio Chart. Simply check and uncheck to add and remove notation points as you wish. You can also click the question mark icon to the right of each category for information on how to enter data for each point.
You can also drag and drop these categories in any order you choose, like in Perio Charting Options. This will impact the order in which these notation points are displayed in the Perio Chart.

Using Perio

When first charting Perio for a patient, you will likely want to create a new Perio Record. Simply click on "Perio Chart" in the Incident sidebar for the options to create a new Perio Record. You can choose to create a blank Perio Record, or you can pull all or some information from prior Perio Charts by using the "New Perio Record From Most Recent". You can choose to either pull everything, or pick which notation points to pull.

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Once you've chosen this option, you will be presented with the Perio Chart. We'll use a blank one for our example purposes here.

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When you first create a Perio Record, it'll take you to the first notation point on the first tooth and pocket that you have organized in Perio Charting Options and Notation Points Options. In the above screenshot, you can see the blue highlighter indicating which Notation Point we are currently charting.
From here, you can begin to enter data into each pocket as each notation point accepts it. Each Notation Point accepts a slightly different set of data which you can review in Perio - Notation Points.

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Gingival Margin levels

The Perio Chart displays gingival margin, probing depth visually on each tooth. by a wide bar and a narrow bar, respectively. The entire length of both bars represents Clinical Attachment Loss, which is calculated by adding Gingival Margin and Probing Depth.

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Furcation indicator

Furcation is also visually represented on a chart in the form of black triangles.

The color is representative of the depths. Deeper probing depths and gingival margin values will be red, with shallower probing depths and margin values showing up green. Restorations from the Restorative Charting Ability may also display, depending on the Perio Charting Settings.

You can also select the Incident, Provider and Hygienist for the Perio Record using the drop down menus at the top. You may also rename the Visit Name and set the Visit date.

In the upper right of the Perio Chart there is a zoom slider that will allow you to customize how zoomed in the Perio Chart view is. Increasing the zoom will improve readability of the chart, but you won't be able to see the entire chart at a glance. You should adjust the zoom to your personal preference.
For notation points that accept values higher than 10, hold the Option key and type the number desired., i.e for 11, hold Option and type 11.

You can also use the Data Entry panel to enter data into any Notation Point as well by using the mouse.
You can jump to any notation point on the currently selected tooth by using the Keyboard Shortcut. You can also use the mouse to select the notation point you wish to chart for. Alternatively, you can use the Quick Toggle options in the Notation Points panel.For example, if I am on Gingival Margin for tooth 7, and I want to jump to Bleeding to make a quick notation, I would press B on my keyboard to take me to the bleeding notation point for that tooth.

For more information on Notation Points, including a list of keyboard shortcuts and how to enter each Notation Point, please refer to Perio - Notation Points.

Comparing Perio Records

If you need to compare Perio Records if you have multiple Perio Records for a patient, simply click on the "Perio Chart" option in the Incident Sidebar. This view will allow you to track changes over the course of time for some or all of your Perio Records.

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You can toggle between a Report view or a visual Graph view by selecting the desired option in the Comparison Type drop down menu.
You can also choose which Perio Records you wish to compare with the Compare Perio Records drop down menu.
The Notation Type drop down allows you to select which Notation Point you wish to compare.

Printing Perio Charts

You can easily print Perio Charts or Perio Comparisons by selecting the item you wish to print in the Incident Sidebar, and then use the Print drop down menu.

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Alternatively, you can simply press Command-P on your keyboard with the item selected.