Periodontal Charting

Why Chart the Gums

Cavities live on teeth; gum disease lives in the pockets around them — and pockets are invisible until you probe. A perio chart turns each probing visit into numbers, and the story is in how those numbers change: a 5 mm pocket today is a finding, but a 5 mm pocket that was 3 mm last visit is a disease in motion. Chart a baseline for every adult patient, then re-chart after treatment and at recalls.

Reading the Chart

• Two tables: Maxilla (upper) and Mandible (lower), each tooth in FDI numbering.
• Each tooth has 6 sites — a Buccal row and a Lingual row of three boxes each, entered left to right just as you walk the probe.
• Above each depth box sits a small bleeding dot — tap it when the site bleeds on probing; it turns red.
• Depth boxes color themselves as you type: green ≤3 mm (healthy sulcus), amber 4–5 mm (early pocketing), red ≥6 mm (deep pocket).
• Mob and Furc rows take a per-tooth grade of 0–3; furcation applies to molars.

Your First Exam, Step by Step

1. Open the patient's Perio tab and check the exam date (defaults to today).
2. Click the first buccal box of tooth 18 (or wherever you start) and begin probing.
3. Type each depth as you go — the cursor advances automatically (next section).
4. Tap the bleeding dot on any site that bleeds; add suppuration in detailed mode.
5. Set Mob and Furc grades where you found mobility or furcation involvement.
6. Write a short exam note — e.g. "Baseline before SRP" or "Re-eval after SRP quadrants I–II."
7. Click Save exam. "Unsaved changes" shows in amber until you do, and the browser warns you before leaving a half-finished exam.

Probing at Speed

The chart is built for the rhythm of real probing: type a depth of 2–9 and the cursor jumps to the next site by itself — no clicking, no Tab. Only the edge cases need Tab: a depth of 1, or depths of 10–15 (type both digits, then Tab). Walk the probe, call the numbers, type with your free hand — or have your assistant type while you probe. A full mouth goes fast once you trust the auto-advance.

Recession & CAL

Click Recession & CAL to expand each tooth into the detailed rows (BOP·Sup / PD / Rec / CAL):

• Recession (Rec) — millimeters of root exposed where the gum has migrated down.
• CAL (clinical attachment loss) is computed for you: CAL = PD + recession. This is the number that matters most, because a 4 mm pocket with 3 mm of recession has lost 7 mm of attachment — much worse than the pocket alone suggests.
• Suppuration — the amber dot next to bleeding, for sites expressing pus.

Reading the Summary Chips

The chips above the tables recalculate live as you chart, and each shows a trend arrow versus the previous exam — down is good for every perio metric:

• BOP — the hero tile: percent of sites that bled. It is the single most-watched perio index; rising BOP means inflammation is winning.
• Sites ≥4 mm / ≥5 mm — how many sites have pocketing, and how many are getting serious.
• Deepest / Mean PD — worst pocket and the average across all charted sites.
• Mean CAL / CAL ≥5 mm — attachment picture (in detailed mode).
• Mobile / Furcation — the tooth numbers carrying mobility or furcation grades.

The Screening Banner

The banner at the top reads your charted numbers and names the pattern:

• Healthy gingiva — BOP under 10% and no pockets ≥4 mm.
• Localized inflammation — BOP 10%+ or any 4 mm site: watch and re-probe.
• Generalized inflammation — BOP 30%+ across the mouth.
• Deep pockets — periodontitis pattern — any site ≥5 mm or CAL ≥5 mm: consider a full perio work-up.

It is deliberately a screening aid, not a diagnosis — real staging needs radiographic bone loss and history, so clinical judgment always prevails.

Tracking Progress Across Visits

Every exam is saved under its date; the date pills beside the picker load any earlier exam with one click. The workflow that pays off: chart a baseline, treat, then re-probe 4–6 weeks after SRP on a fresh date — the chips' trend arrows will tell you at a glance whether pockets shallowed and bleeding dropped, and the exam notes keep the clinical story attached to the numbers.