The Practice Guide → Open Dental
Track 4Open Dental: The Complete Course
Open Dental is powerful and widely used, but the learning curve is steep and most practices only ever use a fraction of it. This course covers it properly, module by module.
ChairsideSource is not affiliated with or endorsed by Open Dental Software, Inc. This is independent educational content. Features and interfaces change between versions, always verify against Open Dental's official documentation and consult their support for issues affecting live patient data.
Course modules
Eight modules, in the order they build on each other.
Getting Oriented
Interface and navigation, how the database is structured and why that matters later, user accounts and permissions, and the preferences worth configuring before you do anything else.
Read module 1 →Patient Management
Adding and editing patients, family and guarantor relationships, patient status types used correctly, merging duplicates, and using notes, alerts, and popups without cluttering the chart.
Read module 2 →Scheduling
Appointment book setup, operatory and provider config, appointment types and time patterns, blockouts, confirmations, the ASAP list, and the Recall system, which most practices set up poorly and never revisit.
Read module 3 →Clinical Charting
Tooth chart navigation, entering existing and planned treatment, building and presenting multiple treatment plans, perio charting, progress note templates, and imaging integration.
Read module 4 →Insurance
The module that causes the most trouble. Plan setup, carriers and subscribers, managing multiple fee schedules, estimating patient portions accurately, claims and attachments, and handling denials.
Read module 5 →Billing & A/R
Posting patient and insurance payments, handling adjustments and write-offs correctly, statements and billing cycles, payment plans, aging reports, and collection workflows.
Read module 6 →Reporting
The handful of reports that actually tell you how the practice is doing: production by provider, treatment plan acceptance, hygiene reappointment, aging, and how to build custom queries.
Read module 7 →Administration
Backups and disaster recovery (non-negotiable), multi-location setups, eServices including patient portal and web scheduling, updating safely, and common troubleshooting.
Read module 8 →Why this course exists
Open Dental is used by a large number of independent practices, partly because it's capable and reasonably priced. But the software assumes a level of familiarity that new owners and new office staff don't have, and most practices learn it by trial and error, which means they configure things once, badly, and live with it for years.
The most common expensive mistakes we see: insurance plans set up incorrectly so patient estimates are consistently wrong, the recall system never properly configured so hygiene reappointment quietly suffers, and backups that were never verified until they were needed.
This course is built to be the resource that would have prevented those.
Who this is for
- New practice owners inheriting a system someone else configured
- Office managers who learned the software piecemeal and want the full picture
- Associates who want to understand the business systems around their clinical work
- New front office staff being trained on the job with no structured material
Every module in this track is now published. Start with Module 1: Getting Oriented in Open Dental, or get on the email list for updates.