The Perio chart tab records a full periodontal examination: six sites per tooth, bleeding and suppuration, mobility and furcation, plus a separate plaque and bleeding screen. An exam is saved as a whole, and you can compare it with any earlier exam on the record.
Before you start
- Open the patient and choose the Perio chart tab.
- Nothing is stored until you press Save exam, so leave time to save before moving on.
Steps
- Check the Practitioner shown in the header and change it if needed.
- Start a new exam by leaving the Saved exam selector on New exam…, or press New. To continue an earlier exam, choose it from the selector instead.
- Choose the Entry mode: One value per site for pocket depths only, or Pocket + recession per site to record both.
- Click the first pocket cell and type a digit. The cursor moves to the next site automatically, in the order Upper buccal, Upper palatal, Lower lingual, Lower buccal. Press d then a digit for 10 mm or more. Shift+Tab or the left arrow goes back, and the up and down arrows swap between pocket and recession.
- Record bleeding and suppuration as you go: press b in a cell to mark bleeding on probing at that site, and s for suppuration. A red dot marks a bleeding site.
- Grade mobility with m then 0 to 3 on any cell of the tooth. Grade furcation with f then 0 to 4 on the side you are probing (0 clears). You can also use the Mobility and Furcation rows directly.
- Clinical attachment loss (CAL) is calculated from pocket and recession, never typed.
- Switch to Plaque & bleeding to record the plaque and bleeding screen. Choose the bleeding or plaque layer, then click a surface on each tooth to mark it. Click again to clear it.
- Press Save exam.
What happens next
The header shows the bleeding score as BOP with a percentage and the site count. The saved exam appears in the Saved exam selector with its date and BOP figure.
To see change over time, pick an earlier exam under Compare. Its values appear as dashed grey lines on the graph and faint numbers in the grid, with triangles marking sites that have changed. The compared exam is never altered. Pockets of 4 mm and 6 mm or more are highlighted.
A signed clinical note that mentions pocket measurements shows a Measurements suggested from notes panel above the chart, for you to Approve or Dismiss.
Common problems
- Save exam is greyed out — hover over it for the reason. It reads "Nothing charted yet" for an empty exam or "No changes since this exam was saved" if nothing has changed.
- An amber bar says "Unsaved changes" — the exam has not been saved. Press Save exam before leaving the tab; Maxillo also asks before you navigate away.
- The cursor skipped a tooth — that tooth is charted missing or extracted on the odontogram. Correct the odontogram first if that is wrong.