Open Dental Forum

It seems to me that OD used to automatically change the code on plastic and amalgam restorations if I changed the number of surfaces on the procedure. Some where someone changed that setting but I cannot figure out how to change it back. Can someone point me to the correct place?

Jim Margarit

Sounds like you're talking about auto codes and I think you're interested in the "Do not check codes in the procedure edit window, but only use this auto code for procedure buttons" in the Edit Auto Code window.
http://www.opendental.com/manual/autocode.html

A couple of problems came up trying to fix this.

1) Procedure Code Tools: clicking the autocodes box to reset autocodes to their defaults (seemed like a good idea at the time...) results in not being able to treatment plan anymore. Clicking on the "amalgam" or "composite" procedure button results in a blank procedure being added to the chart progress notes. To fix you have to click on Setup->Chart->Procedure Buttons->Fillings->Amalgam->Hilight Auto Codes->Amalgam. Repeat for every procedure button that uses an autocode. So, it does not reset them back to the defaults that the program came with. It destroys treatment planning using procedure buttons. That may be as designed but probably should have a warning added to it like "you probably don't want to do this".

2) The original problem is fixed. When I edit a procedure and change the surfaces from "MO" to "MOD" it automatically changes the code to a three surface composite. The only problem is that I have to read and click that annoying dialog every time. Who on earth wants to submit an MOD composite to the insurance company with a 2 surface composite code? Or worse, inadvertently commit fraud when you change an OB to an O? The "are you sure" dialog seems unnecessary.

3)http://www.opendental.com/manual/autocode.html has the phrase: "see Chart Module Preferences, 'Require use of suggested auto codes'." No such option exists.

Jim Margarit

1) I was able to reproduce this. I will look into this some more, and it will probably end up being fixed as a bug.
2) Our users generally get more frustrated when the program change things automatically behind the scenes than when we ask them if they would like the program to change something for them.
3) That preference was added in 16.3. Once you update to that version, you can require procedures to match auto codes. Also, when you have that preference turned on, the "are you sure" dialog becomes a bit more useful. Instead of giving you a yes or no question about changing the procedure, it will give the option to change it automatically or to open the procedure edit window so you can make your own modifications to the procedure.

1) cool
2) Don't care about other users, just how it affects me. (said every user).
3) Jeez, I'm at 16.1 and already feel obsolete. Good job keeping the documentation current.

Jim

There probably are other users who would like the dialog window to not come up. If there are enough users who don't want the window to come up, we can program it to do that. However, the only way for us to know if people want that is if they vote for a feature request. So you could submit a feature request for this.
http://www.opendental.com/manual/featurerequests.html

We updated the program so that there is another warning stating that the auto codes tool will disassociate procedure button in 16.4.27. Unfortunately, this won't help you with the procedure buttons that already had their auto codes wiped.

JLM wrote:1) cool
2) Don't care about other users, just how it affects me. (said every user).
3) Jeez, I'm at 16.1 and already feel obsolete. Good job keeping the documentation current.

Jim

That's why you're the man