We’ve run into a strange issue with the OpenDental API and are hoping someone here has encountered something similar.
We’re integrating with a multi-location practice group. Their OpenDental environment has multiple active clinics configured, including:
• *** Clinic A – General
• *** Clinic B – Pediatrics
• *** Clinic C – Ortho
(All of these have thousands of patients and are not hidden)
However, there’s one additional clinic configured as:
• “DO NOT USE – *** 3223”
This clinic is hidden and has 0 patients.
The problem is:
When we make requests to the API (e.g., GET /appointments?clinic=5, GET /appointments?ClinicNum=5), we only receive data from the ***3223 clinic — despite it being hidden. We’ve also hit /clinics, and that endpoint only returns this one hidden clinic, not the active ones we expect.
What we’ve confirmed:
• The correct clinics are active and not hidden
• The “DO NOT USE” clinic is definitely marked as hidden
• We are passing the clinic parameter in API calls (e.g., GET /appointments?clinic=5)
• Our API key is correctly configured and functional
• No changes on our side have been made recently
Questions:
• Does the API ignore the “Hidden” flag on clinics when returning results or determining defaults?
• Is there any reason the /clinics endpoint would return only one clinic (especially a hidden one)?
• Are there API-level permissions or user/group filters that could cause the correct clinics to be omitted?
If anyone has insight or has seen this before, we’d really appreciate the help. We’re open to collaborating outside the forum and would be happy to compensate any developers willing to help us troubleshoot this further.
Image: https://imgur.com/a/DOblVF5
