Open Dental Forum

1) In the progress notes in the charts, it can be really really difficult to find things, as there seems to be no way that things are organised. It is particularly more difficult since we need to use item number 222 for each individual tooth for root planing, and not for each quadrant. Hence, we may have up to 32 entries blocking up the screen, instead of the usual four

a) is there a way in which we can sort by each column? Just like in most windows application, if we could click on 'date', 'tooth', 'item number ' description and cost, and also ada code, and then have everything sorted out. This would be excellent if we are trying to find (for eg) what work needs to be done on the 26. Currently, it is difficult on this screen to sort through and find what needs to be done

b) What is the natural order of grouping for the way things are displayed? I cant figure out when i add in 011 114 121 022 022 022 022 the 121 winds up in the middle of the 022s
Is it possible to group them in terms of the way they are ordered, or just by ada code? It would be much easier to find things then. (please note i am in australia, so these codes are native to oz!)

c) can we lump things that we do a lot of (ie 222, and 022) into a single code? ie can we have 12*222 if we have 12 teeth that need root planing, and if we have taken 8 xrays, can we say 8*022?

2) I have found a way of making the charting much prettier and easier to look at! There is some wasted screen real estate on the charting page, to the right where the proceedure codes are, and to the right of the progress notes are. Can we shift the treatment/missing teeth/movcements/primary/planned apt, and show box way over to the right hand side of the screen, and also the progress notes? This would allow the charting to be nearly double the size and visible ALL of the time. I am aware that we can get a full screen of the chart, but i really like to have it up normal size. If we had the option of getting rid of the user and signed sections of the progress notes, (or made the description a centimetre smaller) we would have more room here as well

aussiedentist wrote:1) In the progress notes in the charts, it can be really really difficult to find things, as there seems to be no way that things are organised.

You must not be using the Show tab to your full advantage: http://opendental.com/manual/showtabchart.html

aussiedentist wrote:a) is there a way in which we can sort by each column?

What version are you on because in recent versions you can simply click on the column headers and the progress notes will be sorted by whatever column you clicked on. Use the Show tab / Chart Views to determine how wide and how many columns show per "view".

aussiedentist wrote:b) What is the natural order of grouping for the way things are displayed?

This page describes the "Order of Rows in Progress Notes" http://opendental.com/manual/showtabchart.html

aussiedentist wrote:c) can we lump things that we do a lot of (ie 222, and 022) into a single code?

I don't think so. I don't think I've heard of so many duplicates being TP'd. There is a way to TP a code once and it get charged like you TP'd it X amount of times. But that is a global setting and it would be X for every patient which I would imagine different patients need different amounts of the code TP'd.

aussiedentist wrote:There is some wasted screen real estate on the charting page, to the right where the procedure codes are, and to the right of the progress notes are.

Yes to the right of the codes there is empty space, but progress notes are dynamic and up to the user how wide that grid is. The chart module is extremely complex and hard to move things around because it changes the way it looks for several of our bridges and for many other little changes. It would be a pretty tricky feature request to get the chart modules to a point that users can move items around however they want.

aussiedentist wrote:a) is there a way in which we can sort by each column?

What version are you on because in recent versions you can simply click on the column headers and the progress notes will be sorted by whatever column you clicked on. Use the Show tab / Chart Views to determine how wide and how many columns show per "view".

ultimo dental version 5.6 File Version 5.6.33.61
(australian version)
I cant click on any columns and get them sorted

aussiedentist wrote:b) What is the natural order of grouping for the way things are displayed?

This page describes the "Order of Rows in Progress Notes" http://opendental.com/manual/showtabchart.html

aussiedentist wrote:There is some wasted screen real estate on the charting page, to the right where the procedure codes are, and to the right of the progress notes are.

Yes to the right of the codes there is empty space, but progress notes are dynamic and up to the user how wide that grid is. The chart module is extremely complex and hard to move things around because it changes the way it looks for several of our bridges and for many other little changes. It would be a pretty tricky feature request to get the chart modules to a point that users can move items around however they want.[/quote]

How can we make the progress notes smaller? There are a couple of colums i never use. Even the ADA column could be called ADA and save a centimetre

If we had the progress notes the same size as the tabs above, we could then make the charting much bigger as standard

These are questions and requests to be making to Ultimo Dental. Any changes we make or have made (which it seems they don't have some of the features we've been implementing) they would have to incorporate. One downfall to being an open source software is that any company that redistributes or branches off from our code is responsible for what features are included with the software from that point forward.

Jason I appreciate your time in replying to this post. The Australian version we independently maintain differs to Open Dental in that it has additional features and interface changes. We maintain a dedicated help desk that we encourage our users to contact with any queries they have.

In the case of aussiedentist a software update to his practice addressed most of his queries. The "wasted screen real estate" mentioned is apparent with users with higher resolution displays, specifically wide screens. I am sure this will be addressed in the future with both an increase to the minimum screen resolution requirement, better support from Windows to scale content and possibly features such as a Procedure Buttons / Quick Buttons floating toolbar with customizable buttons that can be docked to the right of the Charting form.

As for me, on the right side of the charting module, where the empty space is, I would prefer to have a copy of the schedule (may be an abbreviated copy) with that moving red line, so I would see what is coming.
I would love to see the tooth chart showing more information but, I guess, that is good for the whole different topic of discussion (I actually submitted a feature request once, have not been implemented yet)