Periodontal examinations

Open a patient in the clinical workspace and click the Perio tab. The strip at the top picks the kind, with a count of the exams on record for each, and ‹ › step through that kind's exams newest first; the exam shown sits inline under it, so charting happens on the record itself, not in a window. Each examination is one of five kinds:

Recording an examination is a professional act: the examiner's registration and the location's jurisdiction are recorded with it, and BPE is only accepted at a UK location and PSR at a US or Italian one. New examination offers only the kinds the chosen location accepts.

Draft, complete, amend

1. Click the New examination icon, choose the kind and the location, and click Start. The exam opens as a draft on the tab. An examination can't be dated after today at its location.
2. Enter the findings. A draft saves as you go — you can leave it and come back, even on another day; unfinished work is never lost. If the exam was saved elsewhere in the meantime, your entries stay on screen so you can Keep mine or Use theirs. Picking another kind, stepping to another exam or switching tabs with unsaved entries asks you to Save or Discard first; Save leaves once that save is confirmed, and anything you enter while it is on its way keeps the exam open and is saved next. If a save fails, the exam shows Not saved — click Retry to send it again.
3. Click the Complete icon when the examination is done. The exam is sealed. A BPE or PSR needs at least one sextant scored. If some sextants are still blank, Smileline names them and asks you to confirm before completing.
4. A completed exam can still be corrected: open it, change what you need and click Save amendment. The revision number increases and the earlier version — header and every row — is kept forever. There is no time limit on amendments. An amendment that fails to save stays on screen as Not saved until Retry sends it again.

A second examination of the same kind on the same day is a separate exam, never an overwrite.

Previous versions, compare and print

An amended exam shows Previous versions with how many are kept, for example Previous versions (2). A completed exam that was never amended shows Compare instead. Either opens a side panel headed with the patient's name and date of birth:

• The buttons across the top pick a version (Revision 1, Revision 2 and so on). The panel opens on the newest one.

• Each version is drawn exactly as it was kept:

  • its date, who examined, and its status;
  • its classification and its bleeding and plaque figures;
  • which teeth were present.

  It also says who replaced it and when, for example "Replaced 9 Sep 2026, 11:30 by Dr Jane Smith". A detail an older version didn't record shows —, never today's value.

• Compare puts two versions side by side, or this exam beside the previous one of the same kind.

• Print prints the version shown, with the tooth notation it was printed in.

• Nothing in the panel can be changed: a kept version is a permanent record.

If the versions cannot be loaded, the panel says so with Retry instead of showing nothing.

Which teeth the exam covers

A new probing exam starts from the patient's chart as it was on the exam's date:

• Teeth recorded as missing, extracted or not yet erupted are marked absent.
• Implants are labelled Implant.
• A child's exam shows primary and mixed teeth for their age on that date.

A backdated exam therefore doesn't pick up an extraction recorded after it. Extra teeth recorded on the chart appear as their own SD rows beside the natural tooth. Each has its own six probing sites and mobility; changing one never changes its natural neighbour. Kept versions, comparisons and printouts preserve that distinction.

Mark a tooth absent with X, or chart a tooth the exam left out, and the exam follows what you record. Later chart changes never alter an exam that has been completed.

Update an open draft from the chart

On an open probing draft, choose Update from chart. Smileline saves your pending edits first, then previews the anatomy changes as of the examination date. Positions you explicitly changed in the exam stay as you set them. The preview lists every position whose measurements and mobility will be reset.

Choose Apply update to accept that preview, or Cancel to keep the draft. If the draft or chart changes while the preview is open, Smileline asks for a fresh preview. Completed exams keep their recorded anatomy.

The probing grid

Each tooth has rows for:

• Pocket depth and recession, in millimetres. Recession is negative for gingival overgrowth, so type -2.

• CAL (clinical attachment level), worked out as depth plus recession. It shows only when both are recorded, and is never stored.

• B, S and P marks for bleeding, suppuration and plaque.

• Furcation, 0–4, only where a furcation can exist:

  • upper molars: buccal, mesio-palatal and disto-palatal;
  • upper first premolars: mesial and distal;
  • lower molars: buccal and lingual.

  Implants and single-rooted teeth never have it.

• Mobility, per tooth, 0–3.

The grid is built for the keyboard:

• Type a value and press Enter to move to the next site, or Shift + Enter to go back.
• B, S and P cycle the focused site through not assessed → yes → no → not assessed.
• X marks the whole tooth absent.

Typing a depth doesn't change bleeding: a site you don't mark stays not assessed, never "no bleeding".

Bleeding and plaque show two figures, for example BOP 60% (12 of 20 assessed) · 20 of 66 sites:

• The percentage is of the sites you assessed.
• The coverage says how much of the mouth that is.

With no assessed site there is no percentage rather than 0%.

Record the Stage, Grade and Extent of the periodontal classification at the top of the exam. Smileline never works them out for you.

Compared with the previous exam

The previous completed exam of the same kind appears in grey:

• its depth and recession in each empty cell;
• any site that is now 2 mm or more deeper is ringed;
• the header counts them, for example 3 sites worse than 12 Mar 2026.

Drafts never count as the previous exam. A tooth that was natural then and is an implant now is never compared.

Mobility belongs to the tooth, not to a site: pick it once per tooth (0–3, or — for none recorded). An absent tooth has no mobility.

Voiding

The Void icon marks an examination as recorded in error. It stays on the record, immutable, with the reason and who voided it. Voiding asks for your password again.

A BPE counts as the patient's current screening for twelve months from its examination date, at the patient's site. It must be completed (or amended), not voided, and have at least one sextant scored 0–4. A draft doesn't count, and neither does a BPE where every sextant is X.