practiced by the dental profession. This service is preventive and corrective and includes: Dental  examinations  and  advice  on  dental health. Restoration of lost tooth structure. Treatment of periodontal conditions. Surgical procedures. Replacement  of  missing  teeth  essential  to personal   appearance,   the   performance   of military duty, or the proper mastication of food. EMERGENCY DENTAL CARE.—This     is treatment necessary to relieve pain, control bleeding, and manage acute septic conditions or injuries to the oral-facial  structures. Emergency  dental  care  is authorized worldwide for personnel of all categories. Dental officers must be available at all times to provide  emergency  care.   All  dental  commands  have duty Dental Technicians and a duty dentist either on board or on call that evaluate all patients requesting care after normal duty hours. These evaluations may be  accomplished  by  the  dental  officer  over  the telephone;  however,  the  duty  dental  officer  must provide care for all true dental emergencies. ELECTIVE  DENTAL  CARE.—This   type   of care a dentist may authorize but may also defer. Each case should be evaluated individually based on Navy policy. Examples of elective dental are malocclusion, orthodontics, replacing amalgam fillings with gold crowns, etc. Priority of Care Naval Dental Treatment Facilities (DTFs) will provide care to all eligible beneficiaries subject to the capabilities   of   the   professional   staff   and   the availability of space and facilities. In those instances when care cannot be rendered to all eligible beneficiaries, the priorities in the following chart must prevail. No distinction as to the sponsoring uniformed service will be made when providing care or deciding priorities. Priority Category The  following  priority  categories  should  be assigned as appropriate: 1A Members of the uniformed services on active duty. 2-4 1B 2 3 4 5 Members of a Reserve Component of the Armed Forces and National Guard personnel. Family member of active duty members of the uniformed   services;   family   members   of persons who died while in such a status. Members  of  the  Senior  Reserve  Officers’ Training Corps. Retired  members  of  the  uniformed  services and  their  family  members  (including  family members  of  deceased  retired  members.) Civilian employees of the Federal Govern- ment. 6 All others. The rendering of emergency dental treatment to any person when such treatment is necessary and demanded by the laws of humanity or the principles of international  courtesy  will  always  apply.  Receipt  of payment (in any form) is prohibited by any dental officer or Dental Technician or from anyone for any dental service in a naval dental activity. SCHEDULING PATIENTS Once  you  know  the  patient’s  eligibility  and  the type  of  dental  care  to  provide,  you  can  schedule  an appointment. Dental procedures can vary from clinic to clinic, as well as, the type of appointment system and the method of scheduling appointments. In most cases, appointments are based on fixed, non-variable lengths, such as 45, 60, or 90 minute lengths, or as an incremental time method using 10, 15, or 20 minute units of time. The increment method is often the best use of treatment time because the patient is appointed only for the time needed to complete the procedure. Whatever type of appointment system is used when you schedule appointments, make sure you do so accurately. Enter the information in the appointment book or computer system first, and then complete the patient’s  appointment  card.  If  you  complete  the patient’s appointment card with the date and time of the appointment first, and then enter the information in the appointment   book   or   computer-based   system (CHCS-Composite Health Care System), you risk having  more  than  one  patient  scheduled  for  an appointment time. This can happen easily if you are interrupted and fail to record the information into the appointment book or system.