Considering OD for a new office

jmal2 · Post by **jmal2** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 1:15 pm

We are opening a new dental office in the Philadelphia area and I have been researching a few dental office management programs. Since for startups cost is an important factor, I am considering using OpenDental for our office. I have downloaded the trial version and briefly Ã¢â‚¬Å“played with itÃ¢â‚¬Â

Post by **jordansparks** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:20 pm

1. It is very powerful. Comparable to any other big dental software. Definitely better than Dentrix due to lower annoyance factor. One shortcoming is less canned reports. For a small office, this is usually not an issue. For a larger office, they can usually use some SQL to get around this shortcoming.
2. We don't really support any hardware except scanners, and very limited Suni sensor support. For anything else, you will need imaging software. We bridge to around 20 imaging softwares, including Schick, Planmeca, and Sirona. See http://www.open-dent.com/manual/imaging.html
3. We provide very good and fast support. We remotely connect to your computers over highspeed internet so we can see your screen. So you won't need anyone local except a general computer networking person. We can do demo remotely as well. Be sure to get highspeed internet.

dand · Post by **dand** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 8:45 pm

I wish I would have started my practice with OD. Of course when I started practicing the pegboard system was the cutting edge.
You ask great questions. But the one that I think people rarely ask is if it is intuitative. Does your program think like a dentist would think or want his/her office to 'think'. I looked at the big name programs and was not pleased with the way they work, provide support, and mesh with the other digital equipment in the office.

I use a digital pan, have a ScanX(which I love)- have not been impressed with sensors, XDR for my digital software, and OD for my software.
After 6 months we rarely call support.

When I switched to OD from Softdent over a year ago, I have never looked back. It was considerably less cost, but if they were the same cost I would have selected OD in a second.

DanDouglas

Jorgebon · Post by **Jorgebon** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 7:03 am

Regarding question #3:
In about four months our office will have been running Open Dental for three years. I can tell you that in that time we haven't had any major problems. If we have any questions about how we should do something or if we find something we think is a bug, we just send an e-mail or call and whatever it is it will get taken care of promptly. If we think of something that may help Open Dental become a better software program we do the same thing. Sometimes our ideas are good and sometimes they aren't, but they will always listen to what we have to say. The point is that even if you don't know of any dentist near you who uses the software, you will probably get a faster response from OD than you would from a local resource. You also have the people on this forum who have always been helping each other.
Jorge Bonilla, DMD

opensource · Post by **opensource** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 9:42 am

It is very rare that one gets an opportunity to praise Dr. Sparks for such a wonderful gift to the dentist community. Thank You sir.

On feedback on open-dental itself. The best thing about it is that it is OpenSource. I have a techie background and love it when I can get into things and do it my way. Open-Dental uses MySQL database which again is an Opensource product. I have written about 25 different queries to pull out the data/information I need to run my business better and manage my customer base. Ofcourse, I keep asking Dr. Sparks for a Biz Intelligence Module in OpenDental but until that comes along, I have my way around it since it is OpenSource. You could simple learn to write your own queries by purchasing a 'SQL for Dummies' kind of a book. The data structure within the open-dental is as intuitive as the interface itself.

I have used OpenDental for about 3-4 years. I have rarely needed open-dental team support. Most of the time, it is networking or my owning doings

.

About one year ago, We stopped paper charting completely. Charts are entered from within the operatory computers. Believe me or not, A Dental office can be paperless. Unfortunately, we do generate paperwork..about 10% but even that gets scanned and shredded. Working on reducing that through even that thru some new features in opendental such as 'Terminal' and 'Inventory Management', etc.

I have not worked with Dentrix as such but have gone thru the Demo and some articles. Even if Dentrix was made opensource, I have a feeling...I would still pick OpenDental.

Good Luck

OpenSource

jmal2 · Post by **jmal2** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:53 pm

Thank you all for the valuable comments. I am now VERY motivated, and am in the process of motivating my boss (my wife). I am the periodontist, she is the GP.

I used a couple of hours to try the trial program. I agree with opensource, Dr. Sparks have done a very good job. Thanks Jordan for the hard work. It is amazing that such a program is available for the dental community. May be we should educate fellow dentists about this valuable resource.

Please forgive my ignorance, but what comes to my mind is: does OpenDental have any presence in major dental meetings?

I like the HELP module. The manual is excellent. Is there a way to access the information found on http://www.open-dent.com/manual without online connection?

The manual suggests that OD currently supports only SUNI sensors. Is there a technical reason for this preference? (actually this has given me a motive to start researching this sensor)
Thank you.

JMA

Post by **jordansparks** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 5:25 pm

Suni just happened to be the first sensor we could get our hands on and for which we also had access to the technical specs. There are about 3 other sensors which we could probably implement support for at this point, except we don't have good enough support for layout. We only support a 4BW mount at this point, so that's hardly sufficient.

We do not have a presence in major dental meetings due to the many thousands of dollars involved. We would have to pass on that expense somehow.

We make online connection pretty much a requirement to use the software. So we have no problem also making that a requirement in order to use the manual. Having said that, we could send you a disk which does have the manual on it. But it will be outdated quickly.

drforlano · Post by **drforlano** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 5:32 pm

I thought I was on the cutting edge, using Sidexis digital pan,ceph, transcranials,intraorals, Simplant for three dimenional pre-operative implant planning and placement, Orthocad for digital sudy models, digital photographs and cosmetic imaging,...to name a few...but Open Dental takes the prize.

Being Open Source, it has so much potential. I have been sing it for 3-4 months, and we will be paperless in two weeks. It has revolutionized my practice. The support on this forum and via telephone is unsurpassed. I have been jilted by other companies with passwords to access support, limited by the number of machines I can run, exhorborent costs for support, ...etc.. the others really get you by the !@#$s.

I can not say enough to recommend Open Dental and Jordan Sparks.

drforlano · Post by **drforlano** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 5:33 pm

PS - I can't keep up with the upgrades! Where are you going to find that?!

murmsk · Post by **murmsk** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 5:38 pm

Another suggestion would be to go to the Dentaltown forums and see what is being said. All of the independent computer guys are very big on Open Dental.

steve

jmal2 · Post by **jmal2** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 6:57 pm

The first time I heard about OD was last year during the A.D.A. meeting in San Francisco where it was mentioned in one of the CE courses.

So, to follow up on my comment regarding the presence at major dental meetings, this needs not be by having a costly booth and personell. Indeed, presenting a CE lecture about OD would cost very little, but would potentially have a notable PR effect.

Anthony J Turner · Post by **Anthony J Turner** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:08 am

I have been using OD for 1 yr 3 motnhs now. Ths is my 4th dental software. For comparison (hope its okay) I have used Easy Dental (DOS very good software) from 92-02, TDocs 02-03, Altapoint 03-07. All were good but as my needs grew techinically they could not keep up. Support was an issue for all of them. We ended up doing most of the support ourselves because our office tended to push the envelope of each of the programs and their tech support many times wasn't expierenced enough to answer our questions.
For OD it has been a much different experience. Support has not been needed much since the software has run smoothly. The few parts of the program we could not figure out they would easily explain. We are paperless and use voice recognition. We scan our x-rays still (can't justify the cost of sensors but getting close) All of the IT work I do myself in the office. OD has been a Godsend for our office. If you choose the program I know you won't be disappointed.

jmal2 · Post by **jmal2** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:43 am

Dr. Turner,

Regarding the voice recognition, I searched for Voice in the manual, and it came back with the perio charting. That is fine, since I will be using the perio chart frequently. Do you use the voice recognition only for perio charting?

Also, what voice recognition software do you recommend, and how do you integrate it with OD? (since Windows XP, the recommended operative system for OD, does not have a good voice recognition capabilities). I found very good reviews for NaturallySpeaking Preferred.
Thank you.

JMA

Jorgebon · Post by **Jorgebon** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:26 pm

Remember when somebody suggested that Jordan design some sort of logo for T-shirts or polo shirts so we could wear them at the dental meetings? Maybe we could still do that for the meeting in San Antonio. If somebody can design it and post it to the website, we could download it and have a local shop print it on a nice polo shirt.
Jorge Bonilla, DMD

Anthony J Turner · Post by **Anthony J Turner** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:20 pm

JMA
I mostly use it in my office for dictation. Clinically I have the open concept so I am not always comfortable dictating notes for privacy. Dragon Naturally Speaking Pro works very well. I use it with a Motorola bt250 headset for wireless convience. You have to tweak a bluetooth headset but its well worth the convience. In my hygiene I do dictate. DNS dictates directly into the text box. I am going to work on the new note addition to OD tonignt to compare it to DNS. Dictation works best when you say the same thing over and over, thats how it learns. This is same as the notes in OD. I'll give everyone an update once the comparison is complete

premier1888 · Post by **premier1888** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:32 pm

I am almost 8 months into my start-up, and I started with OD. So far, I am pleased with my decision. One of the big advantages, to me, is that it is constantly evolving. I can't even keep track of how many updates there've been to this program in the last 7 months, but it is constantly improving, and I don't think you'll see that sort of versatility with Dentrix or Eaglesoft.
BTW, I'm in the Trenton area, so if you'd like to see OD in action, just PM or let me know through the forum.