Open Dental, for the people doing the work.
Open Dental trades hand-holding for openness and lower cost. These guides cover the parts that decision actually affects day to day: support, training, verification, and what self-hosting really costs.
- Maker
- Open Dental Software
- Database
- Documented MySQL
- Integration
- Published API
- Hosting
- Your own server, or a hosting provider
- Permissions
- Granular, scoped by area
Working in Open Dental
Support, training, pricing structure and insurance verification: the four places where an open, self-hosted system asks more of the front office than a cloud one does. Weighing it against other systems? See dental software compared.
- 01 / GuideOpen Dental support: how to get answers fasterOpen Dental's support model is different from the big vendors' by design: more documentation, more community, less hand-holding. That suits some practices and frustrates others.
- 02 / GuideFront office training: what to learn firstOpen Dental gives you an exhaustive manual, which is a gift and a trap: new hires try to read it. Sequence beats completeness.
- 03 / GuideOpen Dental pricing: how the model worksOpen Dental is among the cheaper practice management systems on license cost. Whether it is cheaper in total depends entirely on who runs your server.
- 04 / GuideDental insurance verification: what eligibility checks missOpen Dental has a dedicated verification workflow, which is more than most systems offer. It still cannot tell you the things that actually cause denials.
Open Dental vs the alternatives
We keep one page per comparison rather than writing both sides. Two of our own pages competing for the same search helps nobody.
Open Dental basics
What is Open Dental?
Open Dental is a practice management system from Open Dental Software with an unusually open architecture: a documented MySQL database and a published API. It can be self-hosted on your own server or run through a hosting provider, which is the main structural difference from cloud-only systems.
Is Open Dental good for multi-location practices?
It is used by groups, and the absence of a per-seat license charge makes it economical at scale. The question to settle honestly is who manages the servers and backups, because that responsibility does not disappear. It moves to you or your IT provider.
Can an outsourced team work in our Open Dental?
Yes. Permissions are granular, so a billing or front-office team can be scoped to exactly the areas it needs and nothing more. That is how we work with client practices, under a signed BAA.
Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Denticon, CareStack, Curve Dental and other product names on this page are trademarks of their respective owners. Bays Dental Group is an independent service provider and is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of them.