Introduction:
When a patient has an existing bridge that needs to be removed from the restorative chart, once the abutments are indicated as extracted or removed, the pontic will be left behind with no way to remove it other than removing the pontic from the record. If an office does not want to remove the pontic from the tooth history, but needs the pontic removed from the chart, the following process can be used.
Issue description:
When the abutments of an existing bridge are indicated as extracted in the restorative chart, the pontic will be left behind. When selecting the pontic and clicking the "Bridge" button there is no default option to indicate a removed pontic. The tooth cannot be marked as missing again and cannot be marked as erupted.
In Denticon, the restorative chart will reflect the drawing of the most recent code posted to the tooth. The office can create a Z procedure code that does not count towards A/R or count as a visit code, then set it up to draw the way an extracted tooth would draw. This will remove the pontic drawing from the chart while keeping the record of the pontic in the tooth history.
Signs:
Basic troubleshooting steps:
Setting up the procedure code to remove the pontic:
- Go to Setup>Procedure Codes>Procedure Codes.
- Click the button to add a new procedure code.
- Give the code a description indicating the removed pontic and when entering in the code, make sure to type Z so that the ADA category is indicated as other.
- Set the code to not bill to insurance and indicate it as a ledger code, so that it can be posted to the chart
- Click into the tab that says "Charting".
- Set Chart Category to "Bridge-Abutment", Tooth Area to "Crown", Draw Chart As "Extraction", Required to "Requires Tooth#", then indicate that the code can be applied to all teeth.
Applying the procedure code to the pontic:
- Navigate to the patient's restorative chart
- Select the tooth, then click the "ADA Codes" button. Select the category for other, then select the code to remove the pontic.
Contact support:
Please contact support for further assistance if these troubleshooting steps do not resolve the issue.
Additional resources:
How do I add a procedure code? – Planet DDS