When starting (or rebuilding) a dental practice there are many start-up costs involved. One of these costs is the purchase of your dental practice management software. The prices for these pieces of software are generally pretty steep. This is partially due to the level of complexity of the program, and rest due to the greed of the companies charging for it. But what if you could have your practice management software for free? Does that sound to good to be true?

Welcome to the world of Open Source. You can click here to get the Wikipedia definition of open source. That’s exactly what Open Dental is - an open source or free Dental Practice Management Software. What does this mean to you? For a much more affordable price, a programmer or IT specialist (who knows what they are doing) can set your practice up with Open Dental for free. The only cost is for whatever it takes to pay that individual for setting it up for you.

By taking a quick glance at the User Manual for Open Dental you can see that it contains many of the same features that Dentrix, Eagle Soft, and Softdent have. You can see the comparisons Open Dental has against the big dogs here.

The Potential!

The potential Open Dental has is much greater than any commercial piece of practice management system. The reason is because generally with an open source project, many highly intelligent software programmers from around the world contribute to the software building additional features and plugins. This gives Open Dental the advantage over any other commercial software they are competing with because they will naturally just grow much faster.

Remember, Open Dental is free and it works. And you will find it to be beneficial for your dental practice. Why not try setting it up? It’s free so it doesn’t really hurt to give it a try. Patientdocs.com is an expert in installing and configuring Open Dental Software for the dental office. It actually comes as an option in our entire Web Services For Dentists package. So contact us today if you would like us to help you setup Open Dental in your practice.

Two weeks ago we held a phone seminar with 10 different Dentists’ teaching them how the Internet can help their practice. It went really well and we have had a great response from our listeners. We plan on giving the presentation again. We want to share the white paper with all those who are interested in learning about it. You can download it free by click the following link…Phone Seminar June 2007

We are also interested to hear any feedback on this download on how we can make this presentation better. Our goal with this phone seminar white paper is to teach and instruct Dentists’ how to effectively use the Internet in their practice and benefit from it. Thanks

Dentists’ are well known for paying for technology to make their office staff more effective, only to never touch the stuff! Larry Emmott, a blogger on dentalblogs.com wrote this blog post;

“Two things are required to help an office get the most out new technology. First the dentist must be involved and committed to the process. It is amazing how many dentists do not want to have anything to do with the computer. In fact some of them seem to be actively hostile. The dentist will never get the full benefit of the system unless they take the lead and actively use the computer. The improvements in office efficiency and the benefits from easy access to practice and financial data will easily pay for the system and ultimately increase office income. However it is unbelievable how many dentists not only don’t use the system but actively undermine office productivity by refusing to use the systems they have paid for. For example, some offices use the scheduler but still keep a paper book. That is absurd…burn the book.

Once the dentist is committed the next step is to get the staff involved and learn to use the whole system. One good way to do this is to develop a series of goals and rewards. Another means is to plan continued training on a regular basis. Some really motivated offices may want to try and do everything all at once but this can also cause problems. People and groups can only accept so much change at once. If you try and force things too quickly you may burn people out, indirectly sabotage your plans and lose staff members. Another common problem is people who want to read the entire manual and know it all before they start. Computer programs really don’t work that way. Some basic training and understanding of the software is required but the best way to really learn a complex software program is to use it.”

There are many tools out their that our dental office’s could be using that could make us way more effective. It’s not only important to purchase the necessary tools however, it’s also critical that we actually use them. Even if there is a bit of a learning curve to them. But with that said, it’s nice to have a company that sells technology for the Dental Practice and gives training and support on that technology as well. PatientDocs.com does both of those. They provide you with the most up-to-date web technology for your dental practice as well as give you all the training and support you need in order to implement the technology. Contact PatientDocs.com today to learn more.

In an article located in the jada.ada.org database written in 2005, Albert H. Guay, D.M.D., wrote a paper concerning the dental market price, production, and profit increases in relation to the rest of the nations various markets and industries. His
research and findings are interesting. His article “explores the relationship of dental fee increases, physicians’ fee increases and overall price increases. The author uses the applicable consumer price indexes (CPIs) for the past 30 years to determine whether any similarities in behaviors exist. The relationship between office operating costs, production and net income also are explored.”

The article came to the following conclusion, “Dental practices have been able to respond to changes in the overall national economy in a timely manner. Adjustments in the fees dentists have charged have been parallel to changes in the overall costs of goods and services in the nation. Dentists’ incomes have increased steadily, as have the costs of operating a dental practice. The most significant means dentists have used to maintain growth of their net incomes has been to expand dental office production.”

This has worked in the past, but will Dentists’ continue to be able to sustain growth each year through advances in dental office production? I think that they will, but it’s going to have to be through the web services. Web services meaning more
than just having a website. It’s having a website that “interacts” with your patients and future patients. If Dentists’ are to continue to expand their dental office production, they are going to need more effective and less expensive routes of communication and productivity. Web services will give them those things.

PatientDocs.com provides you with many web service tools for your practice. You are given a web-based software that helps you track communications with your patients. Things like Appointment Reminders or Birthday Reminders. PatientDocs.com gives you tools that allow your patients to fill out their New Patient Registration Forms online before they come into the office. With your existing clients, PatientDocs.com builds you tools that allows appointment requests. All of these things make your dental office more productive and less expensive to run at the same time. Thus, creating more and more profits and production for your practice. Then you can spend your time and effort on what really counts, that is giving your patients the service they deserve. Contact PatientDocs.com today by clicking here to find out more about their web services and how they can help your practice.

Another article written by Roger Levin,D.D.S from the article repository on jada.ada.org. This is an article concerning dental practice management and clinical excellence and how they actually work together. Roger is speaking to many dental practices who’s major concern are their patients and providing them with the best service possible. Many dentist’s shy away from focusing on practice management because they feel it detracts from their focus on quality of patient care. This article disproves the fact that it detracts a dentist’s focus. In fact, Roger Levin makes it very clear how they both work together.

Roger says “A practice that is disorganized or chaotic, for example, does not provide proper focus on the patient. A dentist who is constantly interrupted to solve managerial problems or “put out fires” is distracted from providing clinical excellence and cannot completely concentrate on patient care. Inefficiencies in a practice will lead to scheduling confusion, which often causes chaos, rushing and frustration for the doctor and patient.”

He continues by adding “Practices that lack a sufficient profit margin will be unable to invest in new technologies, invest in continuing education or use the best products and materials. Dental practices, like hospitals, are faced with the ever-increasing cost of technology. The addition of items such as practice management software and digital radiography systems require that certain levels of cash flow and profitability be maintained to afford a technology investment. In time, a practice that does not invest in new technologies, materials and services fails to offer its patients the highest level of care.”

Perhaps an interesting statistic he adds, “Inefficiencies in a practice are compounded by the fact that approximately 5 percent of patients are no-shows or last-minute cancellations each year. On a national level, close to 30 percent of patients are overdue for periodontal maintenance and oral cancer screenings. These numbers only illustrate further why practices must have systems in place to provide comprehensive diagnosis and treatment to all patients, as well as effective recare for overall excellence in oral health treatment.”

I agree with Roger Levin in the compounding effect dental practice management has on clinical excellence. It only helps! That’s why our services at PatientDocs.com are so important to every dental practice. We focus on better dentist to patient communication to help you provide the clinical excellence you need, all while managing your practice as a business better. This only reduces the stress all dentists are feeling and makes them more effective. Click Here to find out more about PatientDocs services and how they can help your dental practice.