Open Dental Forum

Are there any Ortho only practices using OD?
I know there are some a mix of GP/ORTHO, but looking to compare features in typical ortho programs.
I have OD for 4 years and love it, due to its innovation and user input, but we have grown so much in #s of orthodontists, staff and patients, it is getting cumbersome to train and manage, whereas when I was the only doc with 8 employees it was managble with my oversite.
Any suggestions about source programming for specific ortho needs vs. going with proprietary ortho software?
Thanks,
DrH

It's the anticipated insurance payments that's the problem, isn't it? If the annoyance is serious enough that you're considering paying $15,000 to switch, then you might instead consider paying us to make a few enhancements. You might get more bang for your buck as long as it's just a few issues. You might be able to get a lot done for just 2 or 3 thousand. However, if it's more like 4 or 5 major issues, then it might make more sense to switch.

Which features do you need, starting with the most important first?

I've been using Opendental for my ortho office for about 5 years. I compare it to my colleagues who use specific ortho programs and the differences are small. I call them the "bells and whistles". The major parts of the program are solid; scheduling, financial, charting, images. The additional features I would like to see are;

Insurance payment plan tracking,
simplified statements (specifically those with payment plans and numerous $0 fee appointments),
coupon books,
treatment time tracking (24 month estimate),
Clinical exam and Med Hx (whose data can be used for letters),
image composite (the standard 8 photos we take),
letters (sheets) that can incorporate photos, data or x-rays,
Patient check in terminal, and
more specific ortho reports.

I think this is a wide open market that OD could take advantage of since there is no longer a great ortho program. It used to be Orthotrac and Practice Works until Kodak bought them out. There are a few up and comers like Tops and Oasys but you never know if they are going to sell out to a bigger company. With a little research by the OD team into the features of these other program and some added features, the word will get out and more ortho users will join.

We are using open dental for ortho. How can you tell the differen between a patient payment plan being overdue versus the insurance payment being over due. Currently when we run a payment plan report is list by the patient's name. I noticed the Insurance column with X's. However, it does not appear to change when a pp is attached to insurance.

The X in the INS column is meant to indicate if it is an insurance payment plan. Currently there is a bug and it is not working properly. It will be fixed and released for versions 7.9 and 11

Can someone help me figure out how to turn on the Ortho Chart module? I have read as much as I can and looked as much as I can, but still can't find it. We are currently running version 7.9.15.

As we are a GP office that does a fair amount of ortho, just to make sure - if we turn on the Ortho Chart module, it will not preclude us from using the "normal" chart module, will it? I mean......is it something that can be toggled on and off easily? Or is it something that, once set, has to stay that way?

It's an add-on, like the perio chart.

Is there a way we could have the option to integrate the notes from the ortho chart in the progress notes? I am thinking if we could show just the lines in the ortho chart in the progress notes that matches the ortho chart it would be very useful and a more complete record. Then of course you can still open the ortho chart to see all the ortho stuff in one place, which is very useful. You could just integrate all the fields and combine the string with comma separated values or something easy like "Title: Entry, Title: Entry, Title, Entry"

I agree. That does sound nice.

drtech wrote:Is there a way we could have the option to integrate the notes from the ortho chart in the progress notes? I am thinking if we could show just the lines in the ortho chart in the progress notes that matches the ortho chart it would be very useful and a more complete record. Then of course you can still open the ortho chart to see all the ortho stuff in one place, which is very useful. You could just integrate all the fields and combine the string with comma separated values or something easy like "Title: Entry, Title: Entry, Title, Entry"

I agree - this would be really nice.

also, if the text boxes on the ortho chart window could automatically grow vertically for text that is longer than the specified column width like it does in the progress notes it would be very helpful.

drtech wrote:also, if the text boxes on the ortho chart window could automatically grow vertically for text that is longer than the specified column width like it does in the progress notes it would be very helpful.

ditto!

How does one make a layout for photos that can then be printed maybe with some notes or an x-ray ?