Out With the Old (Expired Codes), and In With the New!

by | Jan 31, 2019 | Business & Team Management, Clinical Efficiency, Patient Record Management

From time-to-time, the ADA expires old procedure codes and creates new ones. Recently they did just that with occlusal guards by replacing one code with multiple possible replacement options. You know that there are patients in your clinic with the old code charted on their treatment plans, but how do you find them all?

The Patient Report (by filters) in the Letter Merge can help you identify those patients! You can access the Patient Report from Office Manager. From the Office Manager, click Letters > Misc… > then open Patient Report (by filters).

In the Patient Report View dialog box, locate the Procedures filter. This is where we will set the report to look for patients with the old occlusal procedure code (D9940) treatment planned.

Patient Report View.

In the Select Procedure Range dialog box, select the Treatment Plan check box under Search For. Then under Select Procedure Codes, set your Beginning and Ending range to display the D9940 code. You may also set a procedure date range if desired.

Select Procedure Range dialog box.

Click OK to return to the Patient Report View dialog box. Make sure the other filters do not have anything set up, otherwise you may inadvertently exclude some patients from your list. Once set up properly, click OK to return the Misc. Letters.

Patient Report View with Procedure Code range set up.

In the Misc. Letters, make sure Patient Report (by filters) is still selected in the list and then click Create/Merge. In the Create/Merge Options dialog box, select Create Data File and Merge Letters and make sure Add to Journal is unchecked. Click OK to generate the letter in Microsoft Word (you’ll need to have Microsoft Word installed for this feature to work).

Create/Merge Options dialog box.

The resulting list display all your patients that have the old occlusal guard CDT code treatment planned. You can use this list to then go to that patient’s chart and update the code to one of the new CDT occlusal guard codes:

  • D9944 occlusal guard – hard appliance, full arch
  • D9945 occlusal guard – soft appliance, full arch
  • D9946 occlusal guard – hard appliance, partial arch
Patient Report list of all patients in your clinic with the old Occlusal Guard code.

Additional Information

  • You can only run this report for one clinic at a time.
  • The Patient Report (by filters) is a great way to create custom reports and lists in Dentrix Enterprise. To learn more about how to set up and use Letter Merge, visit the following online help files:
  • For more information on the new 2019 CDT codes and how your site can download them, visit our previous blog post: Dentrix Enterprise CDT 2019 Update Available