Chart perio

Who can do this: Doctors, Hygienists, Office Managers and Owners. Back Office can open Perio but can’t chart.

Available if your plan includes NixDent Notes, you have a NixNotes seat, and NixDent has switched perio charting on for your office. It needs your office’s Open Dental API connection and a recent version of Open Dental. If something is missing, the page says what.

Go to Notes → Perio and pick a single office at the top of the page.

Start an exam

1. Click Choose patient. Pick them from the Schedule tab or Search by name, check the date of birth, and click Use this patient.
2. Today’s exam for that patient opens. Missing teeth are read from Open Dental. If a tooth came out during the visit, click Re-read from Open Dental.

If someone else is already charting this patient today, you get the same exam, read only.

Enter readings by keyboard

Click a cell, or press Tab, to start. The line under the chart shows where the cursor is.

Key	What it does
0–9	Enters a depth and moves on
Ctrl + digit	Enters 10–19
B, S, P, C	Flags the site: bleeding, suppuration, plaque, calculus
Backspace	Corrects the last one

For Ging Marg, a plain number is recession; hold Ctrl for a margin above the CEJ. Click a tooth number to skip that tooth.

Above the chart you can set the order the cursor moves in (Advance), and switch on Triplets, Ging Marg + and Reverse direction.

The summary beside the chart (This exam, By quadrant) updates as you go. Earlier exams from Open Dental show under each row for comparison.

Enter readings by voice

1. Optional: click Check the microphone and run Measure the room and Check my voice. If the room is too noisy, the keyboard grid still works as normal.
2. Click Chart by voice. The bar shows Charting while it’s listening and Paused while it isn’t, plus which row is being recorded.
3. Press space, or tap your foot pedal, to pause and resume. Click Stop when you’re done. A voice session stops itself after 15 minutes.

Open What you can say on the bar for examples, such as “three two three” for three sites, “bop on the next five”, “skip”, “back”, “undo” and “read back”.

Caution

Readings the voice charting wasn’t sure of are counted as to confirm. Sign charting stays off until there are none left. Check each one against the mouth; say “undo” to clear a wrong one.

Sign and send

1. Click Sign charting, then Sign. You’re attesting to the measurements. After signing they can’t be edited.
2. Signing also sends the exam to Open Dental. When it arrives you see These measurements are in Open Dental. Click Read it back from Open Dental to check what Open Dental holds.

If the exam is signed but didn’t fully arrive, click Send to Open Dental (or Send the rest). This only re-sends what’s missing, so nothing is duplicated.

To change an exam after it’s in Open Dental, amend it in the patient’s chart in Open Dental.

Start over

Charted the wrong patient, or lost your place? Before signing, click Discard and start over. The readings are deleted and a fresh exam opens. This can’t be undone.

Caution

An unsigned chart is deleted after 10 days. Sign it and send it to Open Dental before then.

Show the patient

Open Show this to the patient under the chart for a picture of one tooth at a time that you can walk the patient through.

Next

After signing, a Diagnosis panel appears under the exam. See Record a perio diagnosis.