In general, Coding is critical as it can indirectly affect medical care, particularly as it relates to insurance reimbursements. In today’s fee-for-service medical environment, physicians are increasingly required to list underlying conditions, untreated diagnoses, and preconditions. Having the proper medical coding ensures that insurers have all the diagnostic codes required for appropriate payment.

Dental coding takes information about diagnoses, treatments, procedures, medications and equipment and translates them into alphanumeric codes. Coding is an important step required to submit medical claims with insurers and bills for insurers and patients. All dentists must receive “training so that they can identify situations when the new codes might apply, understand when it’s necessary to gather more information on medical conditions related to a procedure, and document procedures fully so that they can be eligible for medical billing whenever possible”. (Taxin, 2018)