Did your office recently convert to Open Dental? Will you be switching to Open Dental soon? Maybe you’ve been a user for years but want to learn more. This post is for you! Learn all the benefits of being a part of the Open Dental Community.

About Us

Open Dental was built by a dentist, Dr. Jordan Sparks, who is still involved today, so we get dentistry. Our team listens to the community and adds the features your practice wants and needs. With around four software updates released each year, we continue to add new features to help you manage your growing practice.

Our team of experts is located in Salem, Oregon. With over 300 team members, our staff is dedicated to ensuring your practice has a great Open Dental experience.

Connect with Other Users

We’re on Facebook! See our Open Dental Facebook Page for the latest announcements and information.

Connect with other Open Dental users on our Facebook User Group. This group is a great resource for finding recommendations (e.g. office flow, insurance questions, etc). You can search for common discussions by topic, and even share content like medication lists or sheets with other users.

Not on Facebook? We’re on Twitter and Instagram too 🙂

For the more tech-savvy user, our Forum is the home of more technical discussions on the ins & outs of the software.

Stay In-The-Know

Website Home Page

We recommend routinely checking our site’s home page for announcements and version release information.

Announcements:
Our Customer Announcements section lets users know about planned downtimes, third-party outages, service announcements (such as extreme call volume or pricing changes), and more.

Version Release:
Open Dental releases 3-4 major updates a year. To view the latest stable and beta versions, see our Rapid Release Cycle section.

Social Media

Any urgent notifications or announcements will also be posted to our Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Newsletter

After each software update is released, a newsletter is emailed with information about the latest version, company announcements, and tips to help you maximize the tools in the software. Click here to subscribe.

Become an Open Dental Expert

Open Dental Manual

Not sure what a button does or what a setting changes? The entire Open Dental Manual is available online. Search results will default to show information about the latest stable version, but you can use the dropdown at the top to change the version to what you are currently running. (go to Help, About – your version will be listed at the top).

When you’re on support, you have access to the Help Feature in our software. In the upper-right of a window, click the question mark icon (?).

The corresponding manual page will open and will display FAQ’s, if any have been added.

YouTube

Our YouTube Channel is routinely updated with new videos. Watch in-depth webinars or get quick tips and tutorials on specific features. Make sure you’re subscribed with notifications turned on so you’re alerted when we post new videos or offer LIVE webinars!

Blog

Since you’re currently reading it, you probably already know about our Blog! Subscribe in the upper right – you’ll receive an email each time a new post is published (twice a week).

TECH TIP: If you recently updated your software and want to know what’s new since your last update, use the Post Categories drop-down and select Version Release Highlights – you’ll get the blog posts for each version’s highlights and you can read or watch videos to learn what’s new.

What You Get with Open Dental Support

As a new (or maybe not-new) Open Dental user, you might not be aware of what you’re getting with Support.
Want to check to see if your practice is on support? In Open Dental, go to Help> Support Status. If it shows ENABLED, you’re on support!

Support

Of course, when you’re on support, you get support! That means you can contact our team of experts via phone, chat, or email. Our team can show you how to use a feature, explain a setting, resolve errors, and much more!

Certain eServices

The following eServices are included at no additional fee for users on support:

• Patient Portal.
• Emailed eReminders.
• Emailed Automated Thank-You Messages.
• Emailed General Messages.
• Web Forms.

We offer a whole suite of eServices for customers on support – see the entire lineup on our eServices Bundle page. The Bundle is an affordable way to get everything you need to enhance patient communication, automate processes, and manage things on the go. Worried about setting everything up? Don’t be – we’ll do your Bundle setup for FREE!

Other Services

• Training with an experienced Open Dental Trainer is available to customers on Support, and new customers converting to Open Dental who have scheduled their final conversion. Training can be done online or on-site.
  Online training can be done for one or multiple staff in your office at once and is a super affordable way to make a big impact on your staff, your practice, and your patients.
  On-site training allows you to have an Open Dental trainer in your office with your staff as they work with patients for real-time, on-the-job training. The trainer can train various groups in your office at specific points during the day, and shadow your staff as they work to answer questions.
  Please note: on-site training is temporarily unavailable due to COVID. See the On-Site Training section on this page for updates.
• Customers on support can order Custom Queries for complex, practice-specific reports that may not already be available.
• Customers on support can take advantage of Sheet Design Services and have Open Dental patient forms and web forms customized for the practice.

Imaging Features

If you want to use Open Dental for Xray Imaging or Intraoral Videos, support includes these features.
For more information, see the Imaging Module page in our online manual.

Regular Software Updates

As mentioned before, Open Dental is committed to implementing the features and tools you want and need. Software updates are only available for users on support. You can do updates on your own as often as you want, or you can contact us to do the update for you.

We’re excited to welcome you to the Open Dental Community! As always, we are here to help with whatever your Open Dental needs may be.