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Latest discussions

Dentist to dentist: what is one workflow problem you wish another office had already solved?Open thread. Not a product question — a practice question. What is the recurring thing in your office that eats time every week and feels like someone else must have figured out? Post yours; if you have solved one of the others, reply with how.General QuestionsDr. T. · Los Angeles, CA · General Dentistry0 repliesOct 29, 2026
How do you present a treatment plan from Open Dental so patients actually understand it?The default Open Dental treatment plan printout is accurate and completely unreadable for most patients. What are offices doing — a custom sheet, a visual, a verbal walk-through, a separate app — that changes acceptance in practice?Treatment PlanningDr. T. · Los Angeles, CA · General Dentistry0 repliesOct 29, 2026
Same-day crowns: which cases are you still sending to the lab, and why?For offices milling in-house, what is the line where you still send the case out? Anterior esthetics, long-span, implants, specific materials? Interested in how that line has moved over the last couple of years as the materials improved.Materials & TechniquesDr. T. · Los Angeles, CA · General Dentistry0 repliesOct 29, 2026
Lab prescriptions: how do you get the scan, the Rx, and the shade photo to the lab in one go?Our lab cases leave the office in three pieces: the scan from the scanner portal, the Rx on paper or PDF, and the shade photo from someone's phone. What are labs seeing that works well, and what are offices doing to keep it to one send?Practice ManagementDr. T. · Los Angeles, CA · General Dentistry0 repliesOct 29, 2026
Referral slips: paper, PDF, or something else in 2026?We still fax a referral form and then email the x-rays separately, which means two phone calls to confirm both arrived. What are offices doing that works reliably for the specialist on the receiving end? Interested in what the specialists here actually prefer to receive.Practice ManagementDr. T. · Los Angeles, CA · General Dentistry0 repliesOct 29, 2026
Intraoral scanner STL export without a cloud subscription — which scanners let you?Some scanners will only hand over an STL through their cloud portal, with a subscription. Which ones export a plain STL locally so you can send it to any lab? Trying to decide between keeping an older scanner with open export and upgrading to one that locks the files up.TechnologyDr. T. · Los Angeles, CA · General Dentistry0 repliesOct 29, 2026
Open Dental backups: what are you actually doing, and have you ever restored one?Everyone has a backup. Fewer people have tested a restore. What is your setup for the Open Dental database plus the image folder, how often does it run, and when did you last do a full test restore to a spare machine? Looking for real-world setups, not vendor pitches.TechnologyDr. T. · Los Angeles, CA · General Dentistry0 repliesOct 29, 2026
Open Dental image storage: AtoZ folder vs database — anyone regret their choice?Open Dental lets you keep images in the AtoZ folder or in the database. Our AtoZ folder is now hundreds of GB and backups take all night. For those who switched one way or the other: what broke, and what got better? Particularly interested in how it affected moving to a new server.TechnologyDr. T. · Los Angeles, CA · General Dentistry0 repliesOct 29, 2026
Getting a full-mouth series out of Open Dental for a referral — what actually works?When a specialist asks for the FMX, what are people doing in Open Dental? The Imaging module exports one image at a time, and the sensor software usually has its own export that saves to a folder nobody can find later. Is anyone using a script, a bridge, or just screenshots? Curious what the least…TechnologyDr. T. · Los Angeles, CA · General Dentistry0 repliesOct 29, 2026

Treatment Planning

How do you present a treatment plan from Open Dental so patients actually understand it?The default Open Dental treatment plan printout is accurate and completely unreadable for most patients. What are offices doing — a custom sheet, a visual, a verbal walk-through, a separate app — that changes acceptance in practice?Treatment PlanningDr. T. · Los Angeles, CA · General Dentistry0 repliesOct 29, 2026

Materials & Techniques

Same-day crowns: which cases are you still sending to the lab, and why?For offices milling in-house, what is the line where you still send the case out? Anterior esthetics, long-span, implants, specific materials? Interested in how that line has moved over the last couple of years as the materials improved.Materials & TechniquesDr. T. · Los Angeles, CA · General Dentistry0 repliesOct 29, 2026

Technology

Practice Management

General Questions

Dentist to dentist: what is one workflow problem you wish another office had already solved?Open thread. Not a product question — a practice question. What is the recurring thing in your office that eats time every week and feels like someone else must have figured out? Post yours; if you have solved one of the others, reply with how.General QuestionsDr. T. · Los Angeles, CA · General Dentistry0 repliesOct 29, 2026

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Where dentists talk shop

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