Dental Core references SNOMED CT, LOINC, UCUM, HL7 terminology, DICOM, and other issuer-owned systems by their canonical URI. It does not copy their code lists, displays, or definitions.
Dental Core owns these structural namespaces in version 0.2.0:
tooth-position-fdi supplies a stable FHIR coding system for ISO 3950 tooth
positions because ISO does not publish a consumable FHIR CodeSystem canonical.dental-component identifies slices inside structured dental observations
and the observation codes of the pulp, apical, radiographic-depth,
cervical-involvement, mobility, calculus, peri-implant, and caries-severity
findings.gingival-assessment-method supplies code-only local identifiers for the
assessment methods that determine the result shape.Dental Core owns the primary codes for tooth state and chart findings
(ADR-002). dental-chart-value holds the values; one ValueSet per axis
enumerates them, and DentalToothState, DentalCariesFinding,
DentalPulpDiagnosis, DentalApicalDiagnosis, DentalRadiographicCariesDepth,
and the periodontal and peri-implant findings bind them required. SNOMED CT
may be sent as an additional coding. The ConceptMap
dental-chart-value-to-snomed-ct states for each of these codes whether an
equivalent SNOMED CT concept exists, as a bare identifier, or lists it as
unmatched. ICDAS caries severity is a reference-only CodeSystem like the other
named scales below.
A cervical-involvement finding qualifies the finding on the tooth surfaces it
names: with a surface it states the involvement as a boolean, as BEMA's vz,
lz, mz or dz suffix does, and the cervical region never counts as a surface
of its own. When the source records a cervical lesion or filling without saying
on which side, the finding names no surface and its value says what reaches the
neck (cervical-involvement-kind: caries or direct-filling): cervical, side
not recorded. A receiver must not place it on a surface and must not read it
as root caries; root caries is stated only by the root-caries and
cavitated-root-caries caries results. The same holds for a DentalCariesFinding
without a surface: with a caries or secondary-caries result it records a lesion
whose surface was not recorded.
Tooth-level orders (DentalServiceRequest) are coded with the bare SNOMED CT
concepts of dental-tooth-order: fitting of a crown, a bridge, or a denture, and
tooth extraction. SNOMED CT has no renewal concept for these fittings, so
restoration-renewal states on the order whether an existing restoration is
replaced. It is a recorded clinical decision and is never inferred from the chart.
The named Fischer, Miller, Cairo, ICDAS, and 2017 World Workshop CodeSystems are
reference-only canonical declarations with content = not-present. Their
ValueSets enumerate bare admitted codes without redistributing displays,
definitions, or other third-party expressions. Miller and Cairo remain distinct
alternative classifications, and stage, grade, and extent remain separate axes.
Apart from the ADR-002 values, no Dental Core namespace is a clinical synonym layer. Adapter tokens, renderer enums, and source-system codes are outside the IG. React and other consumers may generate stable option values from the published ValueSets, but displays require an authorized terminology source and adapter mappings remain in the consuming application.