How to Use Patient Charting

The charting function is used primarily as a tool to track a patient's oral health condition. It is a means of recording the patient's current condition, their required treatments and their treatment progress. The charting function can also allow you to create multiple charts, in which case you could have alternative treatment plans for a single condition, such as an "extraction" option and a "root canal" option for the same tooth.

When treatments are added to a chart, they will automatically be added to the plan. This is why you will see reference to "plans" in this article. Each time you create a new chart and add a treatment, you are providing the patient with a quote. The plan will show how much they have to pay in total and per visit (if applicable). This will also allow the patient to check with their health fund provider, as well as make comparisons between alternative treatment plans (if applicable).

The article will go through the following:

1. Overview
2. Creating a new plan
3. Selecting type of chart
4. Adding pre-existing conditions
5. Adding treatments
6. Advanced functions
7. Keyboard shortcuts

Overview

Core Practice has a unique charting workflow. There are two charting views which appear at the same time; the full chart as well as the selected tooth individually. The full chart view is there to provide an overview of the patient's condition for efficiency. In the individual portion of the chart, the assistant can focus on a tooth at a time, applying conditions/treatments as necessary. This is improved since the working area has been reduced to a smaller portion of the screen and allows the assistant to focus on this smaller area, making the process much more efficient.

1. From the patient's profile, click on Charting.
   
   
    
2. This is what a plan looks like. Click the image to enlarge it.
   
   
    
3. Here are some conditions worth noting:
   
   a) Missing: this tooth is not present in the patient's mouth.
   b) Cracked: this tooth has a crack running through it.
   c) Caries: selected surfaces are carious.
   d) Selected tooth: this tooth is selected, identified by the rectangular, blue outline.
   e) Deciduous: this tooth has been identified as deciduous. Note the tooth number has also changed and it is smaller in size relative to the others.
   f) Watch: this tooth/surface is to be monitored
   g) Chip: these surfaces are chipped.

Creating a new plan

1. Start the charting process by clicking on Create Plan.
   
   You can see that this patient already has an existing plan.
   
    
2. If there is already an existing chart, you will be prompted with the window below. Click Create Plan when you have finished.
   Here you can choose to copy items/facts from another plan, such as pre-existing conditions/treatments etc. Above is an example of a tooth which has multiple treatment options and the patient would like to consider both (RCT and extraction options for the same tooth).
   
    
3. If this is the first chart being created, you will be shown the window below.
   The "Location", "Provider" and "Expiry" fields will usually be filled for you. However you can change them, if necessary.
   a) Name: title of the treatment plan. This will be default (i.e. Plan 1, Plan 2 etc) but you can deselect the check box and write your own plan name; this is useful when there are multiple treatment options for the same tooth, for example.
   b) Note: a description of the treatment plan, if you wish to elaborate.
   
    
4. Click on Select Fund.
   
   
    
5. Confirm the location and provider, and select Submit and Start Treatment.
   

Selecting type of chart

1. Click on More and select either Adult Chart or Deciduous Chart from the dropdown menu.
   It will be set to an "adult" chart as default.

Adding pre-existing conditions

1. You can now begin to chart. First, add pre-existing conditions.
   
   Under "condition", you can see that there are all possible conditions, including pre-existing treatments. You can also toggle if a tooth is deciduous or adult, if this scenario applies to the patient in question. You can also click on "Missing" if the tooth is not present; clicking on "Restore" will bring that missing tooth back to the chart.
   You will also notice that the tooth surfaces are labelled for quicker selection. You can select multiple surfaces at once, and simply click each surface a second time to deselect it if necessary.
   
   In this example, we have applied caries to the MOB surface of tooth 16.
   
    
2. Scroll to the previous or next tooth by clicking on the left and right directional arrows, respectively.
   
   

Adding treatments

1. Click on Treatment, as below.
   
   The options in the "Treatment" tab are the treatments which are required. Similar to the "Condition" tab, scroll through the teeth and apply the treatment required as the dentist identifies them.
   
   In this example, we have applied a three-canal root therapy to tooth 16.
   
   
    
2. If you select a treatment which has multiple items/visits, you will be presented with a window showing all the item numbers for that particular treatment:
   Click on any items in order to deselect them, if necessary. If you're happy with the treatment plan, click Submit. The items have now been added to a treatment plan and you can see them by clicking on Plan, as below.
   
   

Advanced functions

1. There are a number of functions which could be useful when using the charting page:
   a) Refresh chart: refreshes the chart only, as opposed to refreshing the entire browser.
   b) Print all: prints both the chart and the treatments on the same page. You can also print the treatment plan only, without the chart.
   c) Clear all your selections: clears the selected tooth/teeth. This simply clears any teeth which are selected; it does not affect the conditions/treatments applied to the teeth.
   d) Delete selected chart items: deletes selected chart items, as in it will delete all conditions and treatments on each selected tooth. At the pop-up window, click on Delete to confirm the action.
   e) More: shows a dropdown menu with many actions. Here you can select to filter the chart to show and hide certain information. Clicking on a filter will show only those items. You can also restore all missing teeth as well, if necessary.

Keyboard shortcuts

There have been some keyboard shortcuts added to the charting feature in Core Practice in order to move the selector around the dental chart quicker. You can use these to jump to a particular section of the dental chart, depending which shortcut you use.

The selector is the rectangular, blue outline around the tooth; this is the current selected tooth, seen above.

 

	Move the selector in whichever direction you press.
	Home: move selector to the left-most tooth in that arch. End: move selector to the right-most tooth in that arch.
	Page Up: move selector to the left-most tooth in that quadrant. Page Down: move selector to the right-most tooth in that quadrant.
	Move the selector from left to right on the upper arch and right to left on the lower arch.