Table of Contents
What Is a Veterinary Dental Chart?
A veterinary dental chart is a tooth-by-tooth record completed during an anesthetized oral exam or dental prophylaxis. Each tooth is identified by a modified Triadan number and scored for probing depth, mobility, furcation involvement, and any pathology found, plus whole-mouth indices for calculus and gingival inflammation.
Because a conscious oral exam can only assess what's visible above the gumline, the chart is normally completed under anesthesia — often alongside full-mouth dental radiographs — so probing depths and subgingival findings can actually be measured rather than estimated.
The chart becomes the medical record's dental baseline. A consistent, tooth-by-tooth format makes it possible to compare visit-over-visit whether periodontal disease is stable, improving, or progressing — and gives the next clinician an exact map of which teeth were treated, extracted, or need monitoring. The two templates below cover the two most common species: dogs (42 adult teeth) and cats (30 adult teeth).
Required Elements of a Dental Chart
1Patient & Procedure Info
- • Signalment and current weight
- • Date and attending DVM/RVT
- • Anesthesia log reference number
- • Species-appropriate quadrant key
2Tooth-by-Tooth Grid
- • Modified Triadan number per tooth
- • Probing depth (PD, mm) where relevant
- • Mobility and furcation grading
- • Findings coded by abbreviation
3Whole-Mouth Indices
- • Calculus Index (CI) and Gingival Index (GI)
- • Overall periodontal disease grade (PD0-PD4)
- • Feline tooth resorption survey
- • Trend comparison vs. prior visit if available
4Treatment & Home Care
- • Prophylaxis, radiographs, extractions performed
- • Tooth numbers for any extraction
- • Home-care recommendations
- • Recheck interval
Copyable Dental Chart Templates
Both templates below use the same modified Triadan quadrant layout your dental radiograph software likely already uses. Copy into a document, print for chairside use, or use as a checklist while charting from images.
Canine Dental Chart Template
Modified Triadan system, 42 adult teeth
PATIENT
Patient: ___________ Breed: ___________ Age: ___ Weight: ___ lb/kg
Anesthesia log ref #: ___________
QUADRANT KEY
100 = R maxillary 200 = L maxillary 300 = L mandibular 400 = R mandibular
Maxillary: 101-110 (R) / 201-210 (L) Mandibular: 401-411 (R) / 301-311 (L)
PER-TOOTH FINDINGS
Tooth #: ___ PD: ___ mm Mobility: [ ]M0 [ ]M1 [ ]M2 [ ]M3
Furcation: [ ]F0 [ ]F1 [ ]F2 [ ]F3 Findings: [ ]CAL [ ]CAV [ ]FX [ ]GR [ ]MN [ ]RD
WHOLE-MOUTH INDICES
CI (0-3): ___ GI (0-3): ___ Grade: [ ]PD0 [ ]PD1 [ ]PD2 [ ]PD3 [ ]PD4
TREATMENT
[ ] Prophylaxis [ ] Full-mouth radiographs [ ] Extraction(s): ___________
Home care: [ ] Brushing [ ] Dental diet [ ] VOHC products Recheck: ___
Educational reference only — verify tooth-numbering and grading conventions against your practice's dental protocol and current AVDC guidance.
Feline Dental Chart Template
Modified Triadan system, 30 adult teeth
PATIENT
Patient: ___________ Breed: ___________ Age: ___ Weight: ___ lb/kg
Anesthesia log ref #: ___________
QUADRANT KEY
Maxillary: 101-104, 106-109 (R) / 201-204, 206-209 (L)
Mandibular: 401-404, 407-409 (R) / 301-304, 307-309 (L)
PER-TOOTH FINDINGS
Tooth #: ___ PD: ___ mm Mobility: [ ]M0 [ ]M1 [ ]M2 [ ]M3
Furcation: [ ]F0 [ ]F1 [ ]F2 [ ]F3 Findings: [ ]CAL [ ]FORL/TR [ ]FX [ ]GR [ ]MN
WHOLE-MOUTH INDICES
CI (0-3): ___ GI (0-3): ___ Grade: [ ]PD0 [ ]PD1 [ ]PD2 [ ]PD3 [ ]PD4
Resorption survey: [ ] None noted [ ] Present, tooth #(s): ___
TREATMENT
[ ] Prophylaxis [ ] Full-mouth radiographs [ ] Extraction(s): ___________
Home care: [ ] Brushing [ ] Dental diet [ ] VOHC products Recheck: ___
Educational reference only — verify tooth-numbering and grading conventions against your practice's dental protocol and current AAFP/AVDC guidance.
How the Modified Triadan System Works
The modified Triadan system is the standard veterinary dental-charting convention. Every tooth gets a three-digit number:
- First digit — quadrant. 1 = right maxillary, 2 = left maxillary, 3 = left mandibular, 4 = right mandibular, for adult (permanent) dentition. Deciduous teeth use 5-8 for the same four quadrants.
- Remaining digits — position from midline. Counting starts at the central incisor (position 01) closest to the midline and increases moving back toward the last molar.
Because dogs and cats have different numbers of premolars, the same anatomical tooth can carry a different Triadan number between species — a chart for one species can't simply be relabeled for the other, which is why this page includes separate canine and feline templates with their own quadrant keys.
Periodontal Grading & Indices
Periodontal Disease Grade (PD0-PD4)
A commonly used whole-tooth or whole-mouth severity scale:
- • PD0 — clinically normal, no inflammation
- • PD1 — gingivitis only, no attachment loss
- • PD2 — early periodontitis, mild attachment loss
- • PD3 — moderate periodontitis
- • PD4 — advanced/severe periodontitis
Furcation & Mobility Indices
Commonly graded on a 0-3 scale each:
- • Furcation F0-F3 — how far a probe passes into a multi-rooted tooth's root junction, up to through-and-through (F3)
- • Mobility M0-M3 — how much a tooth moves under gentle pressure, from none (M0) to severe/vertical (M3)
Exact grading criteria can vary slightly between reference sources — confirm the definitions your practice uses before adopting this scale as your standard.
Common Charting Abbreviations
Charting Variants
Small & Toy Breed Dogs
Crowding and congenitally missing or retained deciduous teeth are common — expect more "MN" and "RD" entries and consider full-mouth radiographs even without visible calculus, since periodontal disease can hide under gumline in crowded mouths.
Feline Tooth Resorption Survey
Because tooth resorption is common in cats and often only visible radiographically, add a dedicated resorption survey line to the feline chart and correlate every finding against full-mouth dental radiographs before deciding extraction vs. monitoring.
Anesthesia-Free "Awake" Assessment
A conscious oral exam can only assess visible calculus and gross pathology — it cannot probe pockets, grade mobility/furcation, or catch subgingival disease. Chart it as a screening note, not a substitute for a full anesthetized Triadan chart.
Digital Radiograph Cross-Reference
Add a column or footnote linking each charted tooth to its radiograph image number — many periodontal and resorptive findings are confirmed or first identified on film, not on visual/probing exam alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the modified Triadan numbering system?
The modified Triadan system is the veterinary convention for numbering teeth using a three-digit code: the first digit identifies the quadrant (1 = right maxillary, 2 = left maxillary, 3 = left mandibular, 4 = right mandibular for adult dentition; 5-8 for deciduous teeth), and the remaining two digits count the tooth position from the midline. It lets a chart entry like "409" unambiguously identify one specific tooth regardless of species.
How many teeth do dogs and cats have?
Adult dogs typically have 42 permanent teeth, and adult cats typically have 30 — cats lack the first maxillary premolar on each side and the first two mandibular premolars on each side that dogs have, which is why the feline quadrant layout skips some Triadan numbers dogs use (e.g., no 105/205 upper, no 305/306 or 405/406 lower — mandibular P3 at 307/407 is still present).
What do the periodontal disease grades PD0 through PD4 mean?
PD0 through PD4 is a commonly used convention for describing overall periodontal disease severity, from PD0 (clinically normal, no inflammation) through progressively more advanced stages of gingivitis and attachment loss to PD4 (severe periodontal disease with significant bone loss). Exact grading criteria can vary slightly by reference source, so confirm the specific definitions your practice uses before charting.
What is the difference between the Calculus Index and the Gingivitis Index?
The Calculus Index (CI) scores how much mineralized plaque (tartar) is present on a tooth surface, while the Gingivitis Index (GI) scores how inflamed the surrounding gum tissue is. A tooth can have significant calculus with minimal gingivitis, or vice versa, so both are typically recorded separately rather than combined into one score.
What do furcation and mobility grades mean on a dental chart?
Furcation grading (commonly F0-F3) describes how far a periodontal probe can be inserted into the area where a multi-rooted tooth's roots branch — F0 means no detectable involvement and higher grades mean the probe passes further, up to through-and-through. Mobility grading (commonly M0-M3) describes how much a tooth moves when gently pressed — M0 is no mobility and higher grades indicate progressively looser teeth, both signs used together to judge whether a tooth is salvageable.
Do I need to chart every tooth at every dental cleaning?
Yes — a complete chart records the Triadan number and status of every tooth present, even healthy ones marked as normal, because it becomes the baseline for comparison at the next cleaning. Charting only teeth with obvious problems makes it impossible to track whether periodontal disease is stable, improving, or progressing over time.
Why do cats have a separate dental chart template from dogs?
Cats have fewer teeth than dogs (30 vs. 42), a different premolar/molar layout, and are prone to tooth resorption — a condition rarely seen in dogs — so a feline-specific chart with the correct quadrant layout and a resorption-survey line is more accurate than adapting the canine template.
Is this dental chart template a substitute for dental radiographs?
No. A visual and probing exam only assesses what is visible above the gumline and how deep a probe reaches — significant periodontal bone loss, resorptive lesions, and root pathology are frequently subgingival or intra-osseous and only detected on full-mouth dental radiographs, which most veterinary dentistry references recommend as standard of care alongside charting.
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