Dental technology allows you to attract more patients and optimize clinic workflows. Using the best dental software for automated scheduling, booking, invoice and insurance management, report generation, patient record creation, and treatment plan handling boosts productivity and improves the clinic’s revenue.
With dental software tools, you can facilitate routine work and minimize staff turnover. As the NexHealth report shows, the key stress factors for employees at dental clinics are an overload of paperwork (17%), along with cancellations and missed appointments (58%). These are time-consuming tasks that you can automate with dental software.
Dental software is a win-win solution for your clinic and patients. Read on to learn about other benefits of dental systems, their types, and the top 9 dental software for different needs.
Why Do You Need Dental Software
Dental software can simplify your life by automating specific tasks and speeding up your work processes. Your clinic can increase revenue and attract more patients with the right software at hand. Modern approach with dental software programs provides a competitive edge, and here is how you can benefit from it:
- Reliable dental reports. Dental analytics can be challenging if performed manually. Software enhanced with analytics tools will provide reports that can support your decision-making. You can receive valuable information on the number of patient visits during different periods, their insurance plans, and treatment details all in one easy-to-read dashboard. These metrics can help you analyze patient choices and the gaps you need to bridge to improve your finances.
- Automated administrative tasks. Dental booking software will alleviate the burden of squeezing appointments into the busy calendar while managing cancellations and reminders. Juggling the schedules of all your employees, coupled with patient appointment management, will lead to booking overlaps. Recall your busiest days and imagine the added stress of disappointed clients who can’t receive the service because of schedule mistakes. Booking process automation will help you avoid such setbacks. Moreover, according to statistics, just 26% of dental clinics use online booking. You will stand out from other dental clinics that don’t use dental appointment software.
- Patient flow boost. Several years ago, the dental market showed a surging interest in patient communication improvement. Dental clinics set up dental practice management websites and software to ensure reliable patient information processing. This software enables automatic visit reminders and birthday greetings, which maintains a personal touch and smooth interaction with patients.
- Effective patient record management. Accessing and managing patient records through secure and reliable software improves treatment plans and diagnostics. You achieve better treatment outcomes with all necessary information collected in one place. A patient’s medical background and previous treatment details will help you personalize your approach and avoid treatment pitfalls.
- Fewer missed appointments. Have you known that 49% of dental practitioners apply automated reminders? This way, clinics ensure that patients don’t forget about the appointments or can timely reschedule the visit if their plans change. Improved visit rates ensure a stable revenue stream and boost client base growth.
You can achieve the goals you’ve set for your clinic by using dental software for automation and improved client communication. You can also discover how the evolution of dentistry contributed to the development of cutting-edge dental technologies.
Reduce patient wait times by 40% and save 15+ hours per week on paperwork with custom-built dental software
Contact UsCore Types of Dental Software and Their Features
Dental software can cover different needs, including scheduling, patient record creation, payment automation, insurance management, and report generation. Some dental software programs combine multiple features, making all-in-one platforms. Read below to discover the types of software available on the market and their features.
Dental EHR/EMR
Dental electronic health records (EHR) or electronic medical records (EMR) software collects patient health data. It includes analysis results, health history, diagnoses, prescribed medications, and medication sensitivity records. Dental EHR software simplifies patient data storage via centralization and sharing the necessary info with different healthcare institutions.
Core functionality:
- Custom dental forms. You can choose different templates for comfortable documentation of specific dental procedures. By categorizing procedures, the software ensures easier data recording and simplifies treatment planning.
- Periodontal chart documentation. The software keeps 3D models of a patient’s teeth, allowing you to notice changes and adjust treatment.
- Integrated communication system. You can share health records, procedure results, and treatment plans with other parties within one system.
- Electronic prescriptions. Dental EMR software allows you to generate e-prescriptions and share them with pharmaceutical facilities and patients.
- Online questionnaire. Ask patients to fill out online forms before the visit to devote more time to consultations and store sensitive health info in a secure system.
Dental Booking Software
Dental scheduling software minimizes missed visits by recording available and busy dates and sending patient reminders. Clients can book an appointment at any time convenient, at night or early in the morning, beyond office hours. Some software allows patients to choose a specific practitioner during online booking and select a date and time.
Core functionality:
- Dentist calendar records. Dental booking software keeps individual dentists’ vacation dates, working hours, and lunch breaks to make online booking highly precise.
- Intuitive dashboard. You can access an online calendar with all information, including appointments, cancellations, working hours, and other necessary notes for each employee.
- Appointment forms. You can leave important notes about patients so that dentists can prepare for the appointment more thoroughly.
- Automatic visit reminders. You can create and schedule personalized texts for each patient, and the system will send alerts. There are also different reminders for staff, which will notify them about visits and provide all necessary details.
Dental Practice Management Software
Dental practice management companies offer software that unifies multiple features in one system. Routine tasks, patient appointments, treatment plans, reports, and billing – all handled within one platform. The main goal of dental practice management software is to minimize paperwork and boost the clinic’s productivity.
Core functionality:
- Medical history formation. The software helps collect patient data and your notes to draw a bigger picture for improved treatment decisions.
- Inventory management. This feature allows you to monitor inventory levels and set up automatic reorder alerts.
- Treatment plan templates. With ready-made treatment plan alternatives, you can accelerate service delivery and focus on more urgent cases.
- Payment tracking. No need to drown in paperwork and worry whether all payments have been processed. The software tracks them automatically and notifies you about pending or missed payouts.
- Reporting dashboard. You will receive well-built reports with metrics about your clinic’s state and operation.
Dental Analytics Software
With dental analytics software, you don’t have to manually collect and analyze different metrics since analytics tools provide data in charts, graphics, and dashboards to save you time. The system works in real-time, analyzes your data, and helps identify trends or gaps. For instance, you can check patient lifetime value, employee productivity rates, revenue flow, and survey results to quickly notice any opportunities for progress.
Core functionality:
- KPI monitoring. Automated data visualization helps you monitor important business growth factors whenever you want. You don’t need to wait days to check your clinic’s productivity.
- Daily performance reports. You can access ongoing cases, appointments, dental insurance claims processing, and more within one simple dashboard.
- Integration with practice management software. Such an integration ensures information transfers between systems for data analytics automatically and minimizes manual interventions.
- Patient classification for personalization. You can customize follow-ups and treatment options based on patients’ age groups and preferences, which improves their experience with your clinic.
Dental Billing Software
Dental billing software will help you handle payment tasks without the need for reminder calls. The system will create invoices and send them to patients, reducing payment delays. In addition, you will have all billing information within reach. Billing software facilitates compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). PCI DSS ensures security for a patient’s credit card data, while HIPAA helps keep patient information confidential.
Core functionality:
- Payment visibility dashboard. You can access all payment info, like refunds, delays, pendings, and requests.
- Secure transactions. The billing software usually has built-in security features and robust data protection measures.
- Billing history audits. You can receive transaction history regarding any procedure or patient.
- Automated payment requests. The software can share individual payment requests with each patient, providing necessary details and procedure lists.
Dental Revenue Cycle Management
With the help of dental revenue cycle management software, you can receive reports on payment collection duration, percentage of denied insurance claims, and actual revenue stream or net collection rate.
Core functionality:
- Operational and analytics reports. You will get payment and clinic performance reports without the need to interpret complex data manually since the software provides easily digestible breakdowns.
- Text-to-pay method. The system will generate invoices accurately and on time and share them with patients.
- Claim denial management. The software will notify you about denied claims so you can process them faster and track any negative patterns.
- Contract management. You can manage payer contracts and payment schedules automatically while the system updates terms and details.
Dental Claims Processing
Dental claims processing software will help you keep track of pending claims and denials without manual documentation. This reduces the risk of missing the claims due to the automated tracking process and automates the creation of spreadsheets for claim management.
Core functionality:
- Electronic claim submission. The software will automatically generate insurance claims with accurate data to help you avoid errors and subsequent resubmissions.
- Claim summary formation. You will get claim status, issues, and patient information in concise form for fast and easy claim review.
- Insurance reports. The system automatically creates insurance performance reports with information about denials and delays to improve processing timing and payment collections.
- Status updates and notifications. Timely information on claim status helps optimize insurance processing and avoid payment delays.
Get your evenings back – Automate your daily tasks
Schedule a Call9 Best Dental Software Programs for Different Uses
Read about dental software systems that offer versatile features to simplify your dental business workflows. They can be useful for patient interaction, invoice handling, insurance management, and automating other processes. We reviewed multiple top software rankings and chose the best programs that cover different needs. The current list is not a ranking and features the best dental software solutions in a random order.
Dentrix Ascend – Dental Practice Management Platform
This dental practice management platform simplifies patient flow handling, records management, and insurance tracking. The company offers patient chart customization, where you can manage notes, terms, procedures, and automated reminders. You can enhance health records by adding clinical images and automate treatment plan creation. Since the tool enables claim tracking, you can also accelerate invoice management and minimize the errors within insurance forms.
Key strengths:
This is one of the best dental practice management software for automating administrative and clinical tasks.
Curve Dental – Dental EMR and Revenue Cycle Management
With Curve Dental software, which is basically a dental EMR and revenue cycle management dental system, you can use digital forms for patient registration, add scans to the records, and retrieve custom reports. It also supports automatic payment tracking, claim management, and accelerated insurance management. The software includes features for easier patient record handling and alleviates tracking and managing different financial aspects like invoice generation or insurance claim processing.
Key strengths:
The solution will help you streamline routine operations, take the load off your management team, and generate revenue, insurance, and claim reports easily.
ACE Dental – 3D Restorative Charting
This software offers 3D Restorative Charting — a simple way to elevate a treatment plan by attaching an odontogram representing the current health state. Plus, dentists can add ongoing and previous procedures. You can also access documentation templates, which provide an easy way to store and share critical data. The program includes automatic scheduling features to help you minimize missed appointments.
Key strengths:
Advanced patient records with all-encompassing documentation and scans for accurate treatment and minimized errors.
TimeTap
This dental appointment software allows you to create custom booking forms that match your vision and brand design. The program helps generate reports that contain visit history, scheduling details, and outstanding invoices. You can also use features like automated invoice generation and payment processing after the appointments.
Key strengths:
Patient registration, visits, and follow-ups, as well as employee meetings and calendar availability.
ClearDent Dental Practice Management Software
This practice management software helps establish clinical workflows and set up efficient revenue cycle management. You can add high-resolution scans to patient records for improved diagnostics. Overall, this software boosts your clinic’s productivity via simplified management and patient care tracking.
Key strengths:
Dental practices of any size and specialty that need to integrate multiple practice management processes through a simple interface.
CareStack Dental Practice Analytics Software
This practice analytics software includes innovative reporting functionalities for prearranged analytics. It helps track vital KPIs constantly so you won’t miss any changes in day-to-day operations. You can set goals and check whether your practice manages to meet them. The software simplifies gaining insights into your business performance, organized by different categories and filters.
Key strengths:
Top-notch reporting across financial, production, and appointment categories, especially if you prefer customizable data visualization tools.
Pearly Dental Revenue Cycle Management
This system helps establish dental revenue cycle management with built-in features like billing workflow, invoice collection, payment statement and plan generation, secure online transactions, and pre-appointment or follow-up payment reminders. Using these tools, you will improve timely payment collection, reduce past-due balances, and spend less time on manual paperwork with finances.
Key strengths:
Streamlined revenue operations with automated billing, online payments, and reminders about past-due payments.
OpenEMR Solution for Medical Records
OpenEMR is an open-source solution for medical records that includes features like e-prescriptions, automated lab result integration, demographic classification of patients, and reports with necessary medical information. This software will send prescriptions to pharmacies, integrate medical data from labs into patient’s records, ensure patient information is accurate, and create detailed reports with procedures, treatment plans, and labs.
Key strengths:
Open-source EMR implementation for cost-effective medical practice management
DentiMax Advanced Dental Imaging
This tool for advanced dental imaging has built-in features for image colorization, sharpening, measurement, and result comparison. You can also use it to add annotations to patients’ scans. The company can integrate this solution into dental hardware like intraoral cameras, scans, and sensors. Such accurate dental imaging will help you enhance a patient’s treatment plans and medical records.
Key strengths:
Accurate dental imaging with modern tools that improve the quality and increase treatment accuracy.
Custom Software Development for Maximum Dental Practice Efficiency
Even though off-the-shelf software may seem like a more cost-efficient solution, in the long run, you may overpay for licensing, newer software versions, and extra user fees. Moreover, with commercial products, you can’t access the source code or reverse the important updates and how they impact the system’s performance. The software owners might integrate new features while removing the old ones, which could include those you rely on the most. As a result, you may face productivity issues since you won’t be able to continue using the program.
Additionally, mass-market products cater to everyone and lack specificity. They are unlikely to satisfy every user, which means you will have to tolerate certain inconveniences. The software may come without some features, so you will settle for less.
With custom development, you will stand out from the competition by providing personalized services. Custom software ensures control over updates and solution scaling whenever required. You can add new features and ask the development team to fix any issues right away when they arise. Moreover, bespoke software includes only necessary functions, and you don’t need to overpay for the features you won’t use.
When your business grows, you can add more features or update the old ones. Your scaling will be smoother and more convenient, and you won’t need to wait in uncertainty when the development team incorporates product upgrades.
Empeek for Dental Software Development
With our dental software development team, you can build any tailored tool from scratch, customize off-the-shelf solutions, or get help with integration. Just share your vision with us so we can craft a sophisticated solution that will perform multiple tasks for you, including monitoring, reporting, workflow management, scheduling, treatment planning, and imaging management.
Empeek will take care of any PHI security-related questions to keep your mind at ease. We develop HIPAA- and GDPR-compliant software to ensure all data and transactions are protected.
Conclusion
Best dental software will help you upgrade your business and take the load of administrative tasks off your shoulders. By spending less time creating reports and analyzing KPIs manually, sending reminders to patients, checking employees’ availability, and managing finances, you can focus on more important tasks and devote more time to your patients. This change will lead to higher satisfaction rates with your services and customer retention, as well as more fulfilled employees.
Start a Project Discovery With Empeek And Get a Cost Breakdown of Your Software Development Request
Contact Us