Reporting Tooth Numbers and Oral Cavity Areas

February 1st, 2018 - Chris Woolstenhulme, QCC, CMCS, CPC, CMRS

Categories: Dental HCPCS Coding Modifiers Billing

When billing for dental procedures you need to identify the exact tooth and/or location in the oral cavity. Qualifiers are used to report the location and tooth number. When billing procedures on teeth and the oral cavity, the JP qualifier is used to identify the tooth number(s) and the JO qualifier is used to report the area of the oral cavity. National Uniform Claim Committee (NUCC) states to report the qualifiers and tooth numbers in the following order.

Qualifier
Area of oral cavity

Example: J010

When reporting multiple tooth numbers for one procedure report in the following order

Qualifier
Tooth Number
Blank Space
Tooth number

Example: JP1 16 17 32

When reporting multiple areas of the oral cavity for one procedure, add in the following order: qualifier, oral cavity code, blank space, oral cavity code, etc., e.g., JO10 20.

When reporting multiple areas of the oral cavity for one procedure, the number of units reported in 24G is the number of areas of the oral cavity involved in the procedure.

JP Qualifier

The following are the codes for tooth numbers and are reported with the JP qualifier:

1 – 32 Permanent dentition
51 – 82 Permanent supernumerary dentition
A – T Primary dentition
AS – TS Primary supernumerary dentition

JO Qualifier

The following are the codes for areas of the oral cavity, reported with the JO qualifier:

Entire oral cavity
Maxillary arch
Mandibular arch
10 Upper right quadrant
20 Upper left quadrant
30 Lower left quadrant
40 Lower right quadrant

This information is entered in Box 24 in the gray area above the Date of Service.

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