Dental medical history form

Three questions a general medical history does not ask

A dental history is not a shorter medical history. It is a different one, and three of its questions have no equivalent on a general form.

Bisphosphonates. Bone-density medication is associated with medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw after extractions, and the risk differs between tablets and infusions. Patients almost never volunteer it, because they think of it as a bone medicine rather than something a dentist needs. Asking it by name, separately, with a "not sure", is the only reliable way to get the answer.

Joint replacements and prophylaxis. Whether antibiotic cover is needed before treatment has moved considerably over the last decade and now depends on the joint, the timing and the patient's own physician. The form should record what the patient has actually been told rather than trying to decide it.

Anaesthetic history. "It did not numb properly" and "I felt unwell afterwards" are two entirely different problems — one is technique or anatomy, the other may be a reaction — and a yes/no question collapses them.

Blood thinners, asked twice on purpose

Anticoagulants appear in the medication list already. Asking again by name is deliberate: it is the answer most likely to change what happens in the chair, and patients routinely omit aspirin because they do not count it as a medicine. A named list produces recognition where an open box relies on recall.

The cardiac questions are more specific than a general form's

An artificial valve, a valve repair and a previous episode of infective endocarditis each carry their own implications and are listed separately rather than folded into "heart condition". The general medical history that says only "heart disease" is not enough to act on.

Anxiety is clinical information, not small talk

A patient who has avoided dentistry for years because of fear needs a different first appointment from one who is fine — more time, a smaller plan, and somebody who knows before they walk in. Asking it on the form, with "I have avoided the dentist because of it" as an explicit option, gets an answer nobody volunteers at reception.

The grinding question is here for the same reason: it is something patients rarely raise and frequently have been told about by a partner.

Filled in at home, this is a better form

The medication and bisphosphonate questions are answered accurately with the boxes to hand and inaccurately from memory in a waiting room, and those two answers are where nearly all the clinical value of this form sits.

Sent as a link with the appointment reminder, the answers arrive typed and before the patient does — and when you upload your own history form instead of using this one, they come back as your own document with the answers written into it, with your wording and ordering untouched.

What this is not

A starting point, not a clinical or legal document, and this service is not offered as a HIPAA-covered platform — there is no business associate agreement. A practice handling protected health information under HIPAA should check its obligations before choosing any tool, including this one. What is done with the data is set out on the security page. Antibiotic prophylaxis guidance in particular changes and is decided by the patient's physician and your own professional body, not by a template.