UK Dental Charting Symbols Cheat Sheet (2026) + Free PDF

Dental charting symbols are the shorthand UK dentists use to record clinical findings on a tooth chart. Get a symbol wrong and the record becomes ambiguous, which is hard to defend if a patient complains or another clinician takes over the care. Here is a cheat sheet of the symbols and abbreviations you will meet on UK charts, organised by category, with a free printable PDF of the whole page.

There is no national UK standard for chart symbols. The dental nurse exam board, NEBDN, publishes the only item-by-item key, its Dental Charting guide, and it says itself that systems vary. Software and practices vary too. The only formal standard is for naming teeth: FDI two-digit numbering, ISO 3950. Where NEBDN or the FGDP record-keeping guidance gives a code, we show it below.

Surface symbols (the basics)

These surface letters are convention rather than a formal standard, but you will see them on most charts:

• O - Occlusal (the biting surface of premolars and molars)
• I - Incisal (the biting edge of incisors and canines)
• M - Mesial (the surface closest to the midline)
• D - Distal (the surface furthest from the midline)
• B - Buccal (the cheek-facing surface of premolars and molars)
• Labial - the lip-facing surface of incisors and canines
• Cervical - the neck of the tooth, next to the gum
• P - Palatal (the inner surface, all upper teeth)
• L - Lingual (the inner surface, all lower teeth)

"Facial" (F) for the outer surface is US claim-form usage. UK charts say buccal or labial.

Combined surfaces use the abbreviations together. Common ones:

• MO - mesio-occlusal
• DO - disto-occlusal
• MOD - mesio-occluso-distal (a three-surface restoration)
• MID - mesio-incisal-distal (anterior teeth)
• MODBL - mesial, occlusal, distal, buccal and lingual (a five-surface restoration on a lower tooth; on an upper tooth it is MODBP)

Restoration material symbols

These abbreviations are common shorthand, not a UK standard. FGDP guidance asks each practice to agree its own list of abbreviations, so check yours. Codes marked NEBDN come from the dental nurse exam key.

Tooth status symbols

In the NEBDN key, position shows status: the inner row records what is present or done, and the outer row records work to be done.

BPE (Basic Periodontal Examination) codes

The BSP-recommended sextant scoring system (BSP BPE guidelines, 2019). Each sextant gets one code, the worst finding wins:

• 0 - Pockets <3.5mm, no bleeding, no calculus, no overhangs
• 1 - Pockets <3.5mm, bleeding on probing
• 2 - Pockets <3.5mm, calculus or plaque-retentive factors
• 3 - Pockets 3.5-5.5mm (after initial therapy, a 6-point pocket chart in that sextant only)
• 4 - Pockets >5.5mm (full 6PPC needed for the whole mouth)
• * - Furcation involvement (suffix to any code)

Under-18s: the simplified BPE (BSP and BSPD, 2021) checks six index teeth: 16, 11, 26, 36, 31 and 46. Ages 7-11 use codes 0-2 only. Ages 12-17 use the full range.

Plaque + bleeding indices

• PBI - Papillary Bleeding Index (Saxer & Mühlemann, 1975). Each papilla is graded 0-4 after a light sweep of the probe
• MGI - Modified Gingival Index (0 = no inflammation, 4 = severe inflammation), scored by eye with no probing
• MPS / MBS - Modified Plaque Score / Modified Bleeding Score from the Healthy Gums DO Matter (HGDM) toolkit. Percentage scores on six index teeth (16, 21, 24, 36, 41, 44), used to monitor plaque control and bleeding during treatment. They are not used in staging, which is based on bone loss

Mobility grades (Miller, as commonly modified)

Published versions of the Miller scale differ on the thresholds and on whether a grade 0 exists, and the BSP sets no scale. Say which version you use.

• 0 - No detectable mobility
• I - Mobility ≤1mm horizontally
• II - Mobility >1mm horizontally
• III - Mobility vertically and horizontally (depressible in the socket)

Furcation involvement (Hamp degrees)

• Degree I - Horizontal loss of support under 3mm
• Degree II - Horizontal loss over 3mm, but not through-and-through
• Degree III - Through-and-through

Glickman's four grades are a separate system, so do not mix the two. The BPE records furcation only as *.

Colour conventions on UK paper charts

No UK body sets chart colours. The dental nurse exam key is black and white and shows planned work by its position on the chart. Many paper charts use red for disease or work needed and blue or black for existing work, a habit from North American teaching. UK software such as Dentally and EXACT shows planned treatment in blue by default. Always read the key of the chart in front of you.

Reading a charted tooth in a UK clinical note

A full sentence example:

UR6 MOD Comp (placed 12/2024). UR7 distal caries, planned MOD comp. LL6 PE, mesial cavity, planned restoration after eruption assessment. BPE: 1 1 2 / 2 1 1.

Four findings, each unambiguous: the tooth, the surface, the finding and what happens next.

Charting by voice with AI Notes

If you use an AI dental scribe, this is the shorthand it should produce. General transcription tools give you free text and do not know UK notation. AI Notes is built around it: say "upper right six MOD composite, placed today, A2 shade" and it drafts the entry in UK shorthand, in your own note template, ready for you to review and copy into your PMS. Dentists using it save hours of typing every week.

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Want it on the surgery wall? Download the free printable PDF (A4, no sign-up).