Open Dental

Software Update: Stable Version 22.2 Highlights

Version 22.2 has been released as Stable, implementing many new features including the much-anticipated Ortho Charting feature and other features requested by our users.


Click on a topic to read more.

Does your office offer Orthodontic services? We’ve added some exciting new Orthodontic features in this version! Watch this webinar for a detailed look at Orthodontic Charting with the new features introduced in this version.

Chart ortho hardware (i.e., brackets, wires, and elastics) and view the Ortho Chart without opening a separate window (to edit the Ortho Chart, users can double-click the grid to open the Ortho Chart in a new window). Along with the new tab comes new ortho graphics. In the Ortho Tab, Palmer (Ortho) Tooth Nomenclature will be used, and only the facial/buccal surfaces of the teeth are shown. When hardware is charted, it will display on the odontogram.

Add ortho hardware used by your office in Setup > Ortho. From there, customize the name, color, and type of hardware.

Once the hardware has been added, create Ortho Prescriptions. Ortho Prescriptions allow commonly used hardware and treatment area combinations to be set up, to allow hardware to be charted with a single click.

Once hardware and prescriptions are set up, ortho hardware can be charted from the ortho tab.

  • Prescriptions: Click to select prescriptions and quickly chart ortho treatment on multiple teeth or tooth ranges. Multiple prescriptions can be selected at a time.
  • Add Single: Select teeth and click to add specific hardware to the selected teeth.
  • Copy (from selected date): After charting the initial ortho treatment, users will click this button to quickly copy all existing hardware to today’s date. From there, they can delete or add hardware as needed.

Additional preferences have also been added for Ortho in Setup > Ortho.

  • Show Ortho button and tab in Chart module: Enable/disable the new Ortho Tab and Ortho Chart button from the Chart Module.
  • Ortho Hardware Specs: Click Setup to add or edit available Ortho Hardware.
  • Ortho Prescriptions: Click Setup to add or edit available Ortho Prescriptions.

Tech Tip: The Ortho Chart will open in read-only mode for users without the Ortho Chart Edit permission.

A specific tooth number can now be associated with an Appt Procs Quick Add.
This is useful in scenarios where the specified tooth number is commonly used by most patients. It is only available for procedure codes with a treatment area of Tooth.

Go to Setup > Definitions > Appt Procs Quick Add. When setting up a procedure, add the tooth number to the end of the procedure code.

Each time this is added to an appointment, the tooth number will automatically chart with the procedure.

Quickly jump to a specific date in the Appointments calendar

In the Appointments Schedule, click on the month/year at the top. When the date window pops up, enter a specific date to jump to, then say OK.

Day or Week View for the Appointment Schedule

View the calendar by day or by week.

Set the default view by checking the box Appointments Module defaults to week view  in Appointment Module Preferences (under Appearance). You can also set the default to start your week on Sunday or Monday.

Several new features were introduced in the Imaging Module

New Mount Definition Settings:

  • Text BackG Transparent: Check to disable text background color – text background will be transparent.
  • Flip on Acquire: Check to automatically flip images horizontally when acquired using this mount.
  • Use Adj Mode After Series: Check to automatically enable adjust mode in the Imaging Module, instead of pan mode, after acquiring using this mount.

Check out our new webinar on X-Ray Measurements & Mounts:

A Default Scale can be set for single images.

In Setup > Preferences > Imaging – General, you can set a Default Measurement Scale. (Reminder: Users must calibrate the scale before entering a value. This only needs to be done once. See the Calibrating Scale section on our Draw manual page for details.)

New default image Category for Images taken via video

Set a default image category in Imaging Module Preferences to store all images captured using the Video button in the Imaging Module.

Several new features have been released in sheets.

  • Appearance change: The layout of the Sheet Def Edit window has been overhauled.
    • Guide Lines (the blue lines below) have been added to allow users to see how different fields align when dragging on the sheet.
    • Undo / Redo / Copy / Paste buttons have been added to the sidebar. The keyboard shortcuts can still be used for these as well.
    • Show All / None buttons & checkboxes show or hide all fields of the same type to make editing easier.
  • Add a single image from the Imaging Module to a patient form.
    Useful to add X-Ray images, but any image (not a PDF) or mount can be added.
  1. Click Add Field.
  2. Click Pat Image.
  3. Click Change.
  4. Select the image.
  5. Change the X and Y coordinates to place the image on the form.
  • Once a patient form (sheet) has been filled out in version 22.2 or greater, the next time it is generated for the patient, you can use the “Pre-Fill” button.
    This will pre-fill the sheet with importable data from the database and previously completed forms to present the most up-to-date information.
    See the Pre-Fill Logic section on our Patient Forms manual page for more details.
  • The Gender checkbox now includes an option for Other.
  • A new ComboBox option allows patients to select gender identity.
    To enable this feature, turn on Public Health. NOTE: This does not affect the Gender options on claim forms.

The following permissions and audit trail permissions were added in this version.

  • Setup permission has been updated to split out the following into their own permissions:
    • New permission for Setup Wizard
    • New permission for Show Features
    • New permission for Printer Setup
    • New permission for Provider Add
    • New permission for Provider Edit
    • New permissions for Clinic Edit
  • New permission created for Task Delete
  • Provider Edit permission now split into ProviderAdd and ProviderEdit
  • Audit Trail for Provider Add and Provider Edit includes the abbreviation for the provider that was added/edited
  • Audit Trail entry made when a super family is added or removed

TECH TIP: When searching for these permissions in the list, click Collapse All. Then expand the tree using the path given for each permission.

Other new features introduced include:

  • Option to note pronouns in Edit Patient Information window. (Family Module Preference to Show Preferred Pronouns for Patients enables the option.) 
  • New “Other” Gender option is available in the Edit Patient Information window. 

    NOTE: Other will be changed to Unknown on claim forms as the ADA claim form currently only has Male, Female, and Unknown.
  • Preference to block signatures in Procedure Notes when there are incomplete auto note prompts on the procedure.
  • Incomplete Procedure Notes Report filters providers by the selected clinic.
  • Option in Miscellaneous Setup to automatically disable popups after a certain amount of time (e.g. 24 hours later) or post-date the disabled time for individual popups. 
    To automatically disable all newly created popups, go to Setup > Miscellaneous.
Enter the Default number of days until disabled (e.g., 3 days).

Or enter the Default timespan until disabled (e.g., 12 hours).

The Date Time Disabled field on newly created popups will auto-populate if one of the above settings is entered. If a popup should never end, simply remove the date and time from the field.

  • All Preferences are now centrally located in Setup > Preferences. Choose a category to see all related preferences.

We are continuing to develop exciting features, many of them requested through our Feature Request process. If you need help with any of the features highlighted here or with anything else in the program, please reach out to our support team.

2 replies »

  1. Thank you for the Blogs, I do read them and find many to be helpful.
    An area that could use help is the New Employee manual. I just read through the blog and the Task area is not clear. When I added a new employee and reached out for support, I ended in a conference. Even support gets stumped by adding tasks to new employees.

    • Thank you for the feedback, Judy! We are actually in the process of writing a new post about the steps to add a new employee – we’ll be sure to include task list setup as well, thanks for the suggestion 🙂

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