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Help Center · Appointments & charting

Charting the odontogram

5 min readFor clinical staff

Every appointment has a tooth chart beside the note. You can chart by voice, by hand, or both.

Where the chart lives

The chart fills the right-hand column of the appointment page. It stays up whichever tab you're on. On a computer, drag the line between the columns to give the chart more room. You can also move to the line with the Tab key and use the left and right arrow keys.

Each arch shows the teeth with their probing rows above and below. The perio article covers those rows.

On a phone, plans that include the chart have a Chart tab that lists what's charted. You can't change the chart by hand there. Voice charting still works.

Reading the chart

  • Existing work is drawn in its material's colour.
  • Planned work is paler, with a dashed outline.
  • Work completed this visit has a solid outline.
  • Point at a tooth to see a card listing its restorations and other findings.
  • A small tab on the chart's right edge opens the legend. It reads Chart legend as your pointer comes near.

Charting by voice

While Rebrief is transcribing, say a finding with its tooth number. "Crown on 14" lands on tooth 14. This works whether voice charting is on or off.

A finding said without timing is charted as existing. Say "planned crown on 14" to chart planned work.

X-ray caries grades chart as caries on the surface you name. E1 and E2 are enamel grades, and D1 to D3 are dentin grades. Say the tooth, the surface and the grade, such as "15 distal D1" or "16 mesial D1, distal E2". "The 15 has a D1 on the distal" works too.

Voice charting decides the rest. While it's on, probing depths and findings said without a tooth number land on the highlighted tooth. Right after you finish a tooth's depths, such a finding lands on that tooth instead. Every new appointment starts with voice charting off.

Turn it on in any of these ways.

  • While Rebrief is transcribing, press Charting on the small card over the chart.
  • Say "start charting".
  • Click a tooth.

To turn it off, press Paused on that card, or say "stop charting".

While a Smart dictation pad is on screen, your words go into the pad instead. Findings don't chart, even with a tooth number.

The charting card

Each time something is charted, a card appears over the chart. It shows what just landed. While voice charting is on, it also shows the next tooth. Under You can say, it lists phrases to try, such as "undo". The card fades after a while, and its × closes it early.

When nothing is happening, a smaller, quieter card shows Charting, Paused and Done, with a phrase to try. It only appears while Rebrief is transcribing.

A short sound plays when the charting card appears. The small card makes no sound. To chart in silence, open Settings › Notifications & sounds and switch off Sound effects during voice charting.

Editing a tooth by hand

  1. Click the tooth. A highlight outlines it, and voice charting turns on at that tooth.
  2. Click the small pencil in the highlight's corner. The editor for that tooth opens.
  3. Under Flags, click Crown, Bridge, Prosthesis, Implant, RCT or Missing.
  4. Under Surfaces, tick a box for each surface. The rows are M, D, B, L and O. The columns are Caries, Composite, Amalgam, Onlay and Inlay.
  5. Each charted item gets its own Existing, Planned and Completed choice. Click the one that applies.
  6. Set Mobility, or add a Clinician Note, if you need to.
  7. Close the editor with its ×. Your changes save on their own.

Text brought in from your practice software shows under From the PMS. It's there to read and can't be edited.

A tooth charted as missing can't be opened with a click. While Rebrief is transcribing, say "14 is not missing" to clear it.

The undo and redo arrows on the note's bar take back changes you make by hand. They don't take back voice charting. Undoing a hand edit also removes anything charted by voice after it.

Fixing things by voice

  • Say "undo" right after a mistake. "Undo 2" takes back two entries.
  • Name what to remove, such as "remove the crown on 14".
  • If a finding landed on the wrong tooth, say which tooth it belongs on, such as "it's not 12, that's 22". It moves to 22.

What End changes on the chart

When you press End, Rebrief reads the whole appointment's transcript again and checks the chart against it.

  • It corrects an item to existing, planned or completed when what was said makes that clear.
  • It adds or fixes restorations, caries, crowns, missing teeth and mobility that were said with a tooth number, where the live chart missed or misheard them. X-ray grades count too.
  • It removes items that voice charting misread.
  • It adds restorations done today that the chart missed.
  • It charts teeth taken out today as missing. Their card reads Extracted this visit.

Work brought in from your practice software is never changed. If the appointment is still open, a short notice says the chart was updated from the transcript.

The second read of findings and depths works with FDI tooth numbers. On a chart that uses Universal numbering, the chart keeps what was charted during the appointment.

Taking the chart out

The chart has no export buttons of its own. Use Export at the end of the tab row, past + Create. Under Odontogram:

  • Copy image copies the chart as a picture.
  • PDF puts the chart on your clinic's letterhead.

Both work at any time.

Clinics connect their practice software to Rebrief through the Windows app, the Rebrief app installed on a clinic computer. In the Windows app, Export can also send the chart to your practice software once the appointment has ended. The send runs as a card in a chat, with a Stop button.

Tooth numbering

The chart uses FDI or Universal numbering, and spoken tooth numbers follow it. Choose it under Tooth numbering in Settings › Charting, then press Save changes. The change applies to new appointments.