Bleeding Tooth Offset is a setting in Bola that marks bleeding one tooth behind the active tooth. It only affects bleeding. Probing depths, recession, mobility, furcation, and suppuration are unchanged.
If your bleeding has been landing on the wrong tooth, usually one tooth ahead or one tooth behind where you expected, Bleeding Tooth Offset is almost always the reason.
What "one tooth behind" actually means
Bola advances the active tooth automatically as you call out measurements. By the time you say "bleeding," the engine has often already moved on to the next tooth.
With Bleeding Tooth Offset on, Bola applies the bleeding mark to the tooth you were just on, not the one it advanced to.
With Bleeding Tooth Offset ON
Saying just "bleeding" marks the middle of the current tooth.
"323 321 bleeding distal" while on tooth 1 charts 323 on tooth 1, 321 on tooth 2, and bleeding on the distal of tooth 2.
"Bleeding on tooth 5 distal and mesial" still charts on tooth 5 (explicit tooth calls always win).
With Bleeding Tooth Offset OFF
Bleeding gets applied to whatever tooth Bola has currently advanced to, which is usually one tooth ahead of the one you just measured.
This is the right behavior if you prefer to chart bleeding as a separate pass after measurements.
Default state
Bleeding Tooth Offset is off by default. Most users turn it on when they want to call bleeding inline with their pocket-depth pass instead of going back over the chart.
How to turn it on or off
Desktop App
Open the Bola desktop app
Click Options
Click Charting Settings
Toggle Bleeding Tooth Offset on or off
Chrome Extension
Click the cog wheel (two icons to the right of the mic button) in the Bola extension
Click Mic Settings
Toggle Bleeding Tooth Offset on or off
The setting saves and takes effect automatically. No restart required.
Should I use Bleeding Tooth Offset?
Turn it on if:
You call out bleeding inline with pocket depths (e.g., "323 bleeding distal")
You want a single voice pass through each tooth
You're seeing bleeding land one tooth ahead of where you expect
Leave it off if:
You chart all measurements first and then go back to mark bleeding as a separate pass
You want explicit "bleeding on tooth [number]" commands every time
You're seeing bleeding land one tooth behind where you expect
Try it both ways for a quad and pick whichever feels more natural. You can toggle at any time.
Troubleshooting
Bleeding is one tooth ahead of where I want it
Turn Bleeding Tooth Offset on. This is the most common cause.
Bleeding is one tooth behind where I want it
Turn Bleeding Tooth Offset off. The setting is shifting bleeding back when your workflow doesn't need it to.
Bleeding works most of the time but jumps to tooth 1 at the end of an arch
There is a known issue where bleeding on terminal teeth (for example, tooth 32 in Dentrix) can wrap back to tooth 1 when the offset is on. We are tracking this. As a workaround, call the tooth explicitly: "bleeding on tooth 32 distal."
"Bleeding" by itself isn't charting anything
Two things to check:
You may also have High Accuracy Mode Bleeding on, which requires the "add" prefix for bleeding. Either say "add bleeding" or turn High Accuracy Mode Bleeding off. See High Accuracy Mode Bleeding for details.
Confirm your mic is picking you up (search "Sound" in Windows → Manage input sound devices → test the mic). If the mic is fine, restart Bola Voice Assistant from the system tray and try again.
Not sure which mode you're in
Open the desktop app → Options → Charting Settings, or in the extension click the cog wheel → Mic Settings. The toggle shows the current state.
If you're still stuck, reach out and let us know your EHR (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Curve, Ascend, etc.).