Dentrix G7.5 has updated the periodontal classifications to meet the new industry standards from the American Academy of Periodontology.
In the Perio Exam information, you can enter lots of detailed information regarding the patient’s periodontal health, including risk factors such as tobacco use and health conditions such as dry mouth that may contribute to periodontitis.
Once you have entered the perio exam information you can copy that information and paste it into the patient’s clinical note. This will save your hygienists time because they won’t have to re-type all the perio information. It’s a very user-friendly tool.
You can also create perio exam templates for your hygienists to use. Then they can use the template and change any necessary information that may vary from patient to patient. For example, you could create a template for a tobacco user, that includes heavy stain, and the risk factor of smoking.
By creating and using templates, you can give your hygienists a starting point for their perio exam. This reduces the need to enter all of the information for each option from scratch, which can encourage your team to use the perio exam feature more often.
Since many dental malpractice lawsuits are claims of undiagnosed periodontal disease, it’s very important for your office to have periodontal probing depths, detailed periodontal exam information, and notes for each patient to protect your practice.
Perio exam information can be used outside of the Perio module as well. Exam information can be printed and included in a letter to the patient’s referring dentist, or if your office sends insurance claims electronically, exam information can be added as an attachment to an electronic claim.
The perio exam information can be entered when your hygienist is doing the perio exam for the patient and recording probe depths. The updated classifications will ensure that your office is current with industry standards as well as protect your office from any claims that something was missed during an exam.
The introduction of Dentrix Voice Perio, would be an additional tool to assist your hygienists with recording periodontal probe depths and perio exam information. Dentrix Voice Perio is a voice-to-text tool that can be used to record periodontal information, as well as clinical notes by speaking into a hands-free microphone.
Additional Information
To learn more about the new features in Dentrix G7.5, and prepare your team for the upgrade, watch this on-demand webinar recording.
By Charlotte Skaggs
Certified Dentrix Trainer and The Dentrix Office Manager columnist
Charlotte Skaggs is the founder of Vector Dental Consulting LLC, a practice management firm focused on taking offices to the next level. Charlotte co-owned and managed a successful dental practice with her husband for 17 years. She has a unique approach to consulting based on the perspective of a practice owner. Charlotte has been using Dentrix for over 20 years and is a certified Dentrix trainer. Contact Charlotte at [email protected].