Open Dental is customizable for orthodontic specialty practices. We continue to refine and expand features for this specialty.

See our video: Orthodontic Features in Open Dental Webinar.

General Setup

Chart Module Preferences: Set the tooth nomenclature to Palmer.

Ortho Setup: Set default orthodontic preferences for display options, claims, and the ortho chart.

Ortho Chart Setup: Create tabs to organize ortho chart information and set which columns of information show on each tab.

Procedure Codes: Add and edit procedure codes and set default procedure fees and time patterns. You will generally have two types of procedure codes.

• Procedure codes for charging fees/billing insurance (typically standard ADA codes). Add suffixes to the ADA codes to differentiate multiple fees for the same procedure. Only the first 5 digits of the code are sent in claims; extra letters are dropped when billing.
• Procedure codes for scheduling patients (N codes). These procedures would not be billed to insurance. For example, N0001 could be Take records, and N0002 could be Cement bands. See Add Procedure Code. When creating an N code, check do not bill to insurance.

Patient Management

Clone creates a clone of the original patient (in ALL CAPS). Specific demographic information and insurance plan data can be synced from original to clone patient. Offices that offer general dentistry and orthodontics use patient clones to keep accounting separate. For example, track production and income for each provider that treats the same patient, such as dentist versus orthodontist work.

Scheduling

Add the procedure(s) to the appointment, assign your provider, then schedule it. See Edit Appointment.

Appointment schedule: To quickly identify appointment providers or type by color, there are a few options:

• If patients are typically scheduled with specific assistants, consider adding your assistants as secondary providers and assign them to the appointments. Use appointment color to quickly see which assistant is assigned to each appointment.
• To quickly identify orthodontic procedures by appointment color, create one orthodontic provider to assign to orthodontic appointments (e.g. Orthodontist).
• Set up different Appointment Types (e.g. ortho, initial impression, wire change) and assign to each appointment.

Hints:

• To manage future appointments, use Planned Appointments. Use the Planned Appointment Tracker to ensure planned appointments don't slip through the cracks.
• Ensure time patterns for initial procedure codes are accurate so that each appointment reflects correct provider time (X = provider time).
• Book multiple patients simultaneously with no restriction or limit on overbooking appointments. This makes it easy to move patients to the best times. Try to schedule the patients so that the provider time stays fairly constant, even if it sometimes gets double booked.

Charting

Enter procedures in the Chart module and organize them in Treatment Plans.

• Ortho Chart: Keep track of visits.
• You can change any fee for any procedure after adding it to the patient's chart.
• Exam Sheets can replace any paper exam forms. See Exam Sheet.
• Customize treatment priority names to sequence treatment as needed. See Definitions: Treat' Plan Priorities.

Ortho Case: Determine the schedule of treatment and fee estimates.

Insurance and Billing

• Enter an insurance plan's orthodontic lifetime max and percentage on the Edit Benefits window.
• Define the insurance plan's orthodontic claim preferences from the Insurance Plan - Ortho tab.
• Quickly view a patient's orthodontic case information in the Account Module, Auto Ortho tab or in the Ortho Chart.
• Add procedures for billing purposes only using Quick Procs or by simply setting a procedure complete.
• Payment Plan: Set up an unlimited amount of payment plans per patient. The guarantor does not have to be in the same family as the patient. You have total control over the date, principal, and interest of every single payment on the amortization schedule.
• Auto Ortho Tool: When a plan requires that you submit an initial claim, then submit periodic claims at a certain frequency and fee, you can use Auto Ortho Claim Generation to quickly generate periodic claims.

Miscellaneous

Referrals: Track and report on referrals to see at a glance who referred each patient to your office. You can merge letters for your referral sources as well.

Patient Letters: Letter to create school excuse slips or other patient communication.