---
name: dental-assessment
description: Use when asked to administer, score, or explain a Dental Assessment — oral health evaluation using the DMFT Index — grounded in FormExamples/form-examples.
---

# Dental Assessment

Oral health evaluation using the DMFT (Decayed, Missing, Filled Teeth)
Index with periodontal and radiographic assessment.

## Scoring

**Instrument:** DMFT Index. Range 0–28 (permanent teeth).

- **D** — number of decayed teeth.
- **M** — number of missing teeth.
- **F** — number of filled teeth.
- **Total DMFT** — sum of D + M + F.

## What it covers

Demographics; chief complaint; dental history; DMFT assessment;
periodontal assessment; oral examination; medical history; current
medications; and radiographic findings.

## Common pitfalls

- **Treating DMFT as a complete oral-health picture** — it counts decay
  experience but doesn't capture periodontal disease severity, soft-
  tissue findings, or occlusion issues, which is why the assessment
  pairs it with a separate periodontal section.
- **Missing medication-related oral effects** — many medications cause
  dry mouth or gingival changes affecting caries and periodontal risk;
  skipping medication review can miss a modifiable contributing factor.
- **Comparing DMFT scores across different age groups without
  context** — DMFT accumulates over a lifetime, so raw comparisons
  across ages without normalization can be misleading.

## Learn more

- [FormExamples: dental-assessment](https://github.com/FormExamples/form-examples/tree/main/forms/dental-assessment) for the full implementation, clinical references, and worked examples.