Dental Schools  

Open Dental works well in large dental schools or dental hygiene schools, and this page explains how to set it up. You should make sure to unhide the Dental School features from the Easy Options page first.

Computers

The MySQL database runs on the server. You can connect about 50-60 workstations to a single server. If you have more computers than that, you may need a second server to handle the load. With multiple servers, you would run the database in a cluster configuration, with the load distributed between the servers. If you wish to use clustering, you cannot currently use Windows for the servers, but should instead use Linux, Unix, or MacOS. If you have a single server, it can be any operating system, including Windows. Each workstation that is connected to your server(s) would have to be running Windows 2000 or higher. By 2007, we expect to be able to run the workstations on Linux, significantly reducing the cost and licensing issues while at the same time improving reliability. You would spend more time than a small office setting up the MySQL security. There are many network technicians with skills in MySQL, so this should not be difficult.

Security

In addition to the ordinary Security features, a dental school will need to use a 3-Layer Architecture instead of the usual direct connection to the database. See the Server Component page for setup instructions.

Providers

A Provider usually refers to a dentist or a hygeinist. In this case, a provider would be a dental student or a dental hygiene student. You can have unlimited providers. So if you have 200 dental students and 100 hygiene students, you would set up all 300 of them as providers. All Patients would be assigned a primary provider and an optional secondary or hygiene provider. You would also want to set up a default provider for the entire school in the Practice setup which represented a patient that was still unassigned to a student. It would be a dummy provider perhaps called 'unassigned'. It does not show in the screenshot, but if you have more than 20 providers, the provider setup window enlarges to fill the entire screen for easier management.   It can also be viewed alphabetically by class.  As students graduate, they are hidden, but not deleted from the list.

Users

In Open Dental, a user entity is how security is enforced.  Users can be correlated with Providers, but they are separate in the database.  Because a dental school will also need many users, we have a few tools to make entering them faster. When the new class is getting set up, you would typically enter all the students (providers).  Then, use the button in the Providers window that says Create Users.  This will automatically create one user for each of the providers you entered, linking them in the process.

Instructors

An instructor is just another User/Provider combination, where the user is part of a security group that has a higher permission level set.  Instructors can set grades for many students, whereas a student only has permission to view their own grades.

Classes

In the Main Menu, select Lists | Dental School Classes. Add each class.

A class will then be assigned to each Provider (student). This is done in the Provider Edit window. A class will also be assigned to each Appointment based on the provider for that appointment.

Courses

In the Main Menu, select Lists | Dental School Courses. Add each course.

Requirements

See Requirements.

Operatories

Each patient chair is represented in the system as an Operatory. When setting up each operatory, you attach the student to that operatory so that all appointments placed there will be automatically assigned to that student.

Appointment Views

You obviously don't want to view hundreds of operatories on one screen at the same time because there is not room. So, use the Appointment Views to set up logical groupings of about 5 to 10 operatories each. That view would also only show the providers assigned to those operatories. So for about every 5 to 10 students, there would be an appointment view that they could use. If you have certain departments like Oral Surgery or Endodontics that are shared by students, then those views could go at the top of the list. The first 12 views will be assigned to the F1-F12 keys on the keyboard, so the frequently used views will be easier to access. For operatories that are shared by many students, you would not include any providers in the view. This will simply eliminate the vertical bar at the left. It will not keep appointments by various students from showing in that view.

Missing Features

It would be nice to change properties of many providers at once, such as hiding them or changing their appointment color.

There are few reports for schedules, grades, requirements, or instructors. Of course, User Queries gives large organizations all the power they could want. Also, external reporting tools can access the database if needed.

If you need any features which are not listed above, please call us to discuss it. If we agree that everyone would benefit from the requested features, and if they seem high priority, then we can add them for you.

Support Contracts

These will be worked out on an individual basis. The software is essentially free ($149/month for six months for unlimited computers), so ongoing support would really be the only software related expense.