Dental Characteristics

The Dental Characteristics Field describes the status of each tooth, any fillings or any other characteristics.

The dental information entries will be in code that conforms to a uniform dental coding system. Each of the 32 teeth has a specific numeric identifier and a code to identify any dental work that has been done.

The Dental Characteristics Field shall contain a maximum of 32 codes consisting of two numerics followed by either:

a)  One special character “/”, or one special character “/” followed by “R”,

b)  One alphabetic character: M, O, D, F, L, X, V, or

c)  Two to seven alphabetic characters: M, O, D, F, L, C and R.

The only exceptions are that the code ALL or UNK only will be permitted in the DCH Field.  If the code ALL or UNK is entered, no additional information may be entered in the DCH Field.

If all 32 permanent teeth are present with no restorations the code ALL should be entered in the DCH Field. If the code ALL is entered, the following will be transmitted after the Dental Remarks Field, in a positive response:

ALL 32 PERMANENT TEETH ARE PRESENT WITH NO RESTORATIONS.

If dental characteristics are not available for coding, then UNK should be entered in the DCH Field. If the code UNK is entered, the following will be transmitted after the Dental Remarks Field in a positive response:

DENTAL CHARACTERISTICS (DCH) ARE NOT AVAILABLE.

If the code ALL or UNK is not entered, the only valid codes must begin with the numerics 01 through 32. These codes must be followed by:

•      Any combination of M, O, D, F and L should be entered in this sequence:

•      The R character should follow any combination of M, O, D, R, L, C or the “/” character;

•      The C character should follow any combination of M, O, D, F or L;

•      The only character that should be used with the “/” character is R;

•      The characters V and X should not be used with any combination of characters;

•      The characters M, O, D, F, L, C, R, V, X or “/” may be used only once per numeric tooth number.

The description of the codes to be used to code the Dental Characteristics Field in the dental entry appended to the unidentified person record may be found in the Code Manual.