Introduction of New Tooth Notation Systems in Comparison with Currently In-Use Systems

Abstract

Dental charting, referral notes, and dental financial claims are integral parts of dental practices for their smooth and effective usage. Currently, dental charting is proceeded by one of the three commonly used tooth notation systems, The Zsigmondy-Palmer, Federation Dentaire International, and American Dental Association. Although these systems have been used and adopted internationally, in practice, there is much confusion in referring to a tooth, which leads to mismanagement and eventually leads to confusion affecting the clinician-patient relationship. Hence, a growing need for a new system to make dental charting simple, secure, and void of confusion is always felt. In this experiment, we evaluated currently in use tooth notation systems and introduced three tooth numbering systems named based on the place of origin as the Herat Dentistry Faculty 1, Herat Dentistry Faculty 2, and Herat Dentistry Faculty 3 tooth notation systems. A questionnaire containing 17 questions was designed, a meeting was held with the participants where both systems were introduced, and the questionnaire was explained to them. The questionnaire was filled by a population of 481, among which 213 were randomly selected, and data were entered into SPSS. The results proved that the three newly suggested systems are more efficient in terms of learning and entering into patient files compared to traditionally in-use systems.