Dental practice software: from the tooth chart to the estimate and the invoice
Dental practice software earns its place at the chair or nowhere: if marking a surface takes longer than saying it aloud, the chart goes back to paper and the treatment plan stays in the dentist's head. This guide covers what a dental record has to hold, one visit in OPALEVI from the booking to the follow-up, and where the treatment plan, the priced offer and the invoice each fit.
Key takeaways
- Chart by surface, not by tooth, and let indices such as DMFT be counted from the chart, never typed beside it.
- Every line of a treatment plan needs a tooth, a procedure, a phase and an estimated cost, and the estimate needs a date it stands until.
- Quote first, then invoice from the quote, so the price the patient agreed to is the price they pay.
- Test any program on one real week of your own patients, charts, estimates and payments.
Signs your practice has outgrown paper charts and a general program
Many dental practices start with a paper chart per patient, an appointment book and a general program for invoices. That holds while one dentist knows every mouth, and slips when a second dentist joins or patients start paying for a bridge over several months. The signs:
- A chart only one person can read. Shorthand on a card, a filling drawn in pencil, and no telling whether it was there when the patient first came.
- Estimates written three times: at the chair, as a quote at the desk and again on the invoice, each with a different total.
- Balances nobody follows. Half a crown paid in March, and in June nobody can say what is still owed.
- Radiographs on one computer, beside the X-ray unit, out of reach of the dentist in the other room.
Dental software is worth paying for when the chart, the plan and the money describe the same mouth, in one place, for everyone who needs them.
What a dental record has to hold
Agree first on what every visit must leave behind, whatever you use, paper included:
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Tooth chart by surface | Caries, fillings, crowns, implants, root canals and missing teeth, in FDI numbering, so the next dentist reads the mouth as it was left. |
| Dentition | Permanent, primary or mixed: a child's chart is not an adult's. |
| Periodontal readings | Probing depth, recession, bleeding and plaque at six sites per tooth, with mobility and furcation, to compare one visit with the next. |
| Caries index | DMFT and dmft counted from the chart, so the number and the chart agree. |
| Occlusion, jaw joint, soft tissues | The baseline for orthodontic, prosthetic and TMJ work, and where any lesion sits. |
| Local anaesthetic | Agent, cartridges, technique and batch (LOT) number, for the day a batch is recalled. |
| Radiographs | Which films were taken, with the images attached. |
| Treatment plan and estimate | Tooth, procedure, phase and estimated cost on each line, and how long the estimate stands. |
| Work done and payment | What was done, billed, paid and still owed. |
The chart records; the dentist decides
Software keeps findings and does arithmetic on them. Whether a pocket needs treatment or what a lesion is stays the dentist's judgement, in the dentist's own words.
A chairside visit in OPALEVI, step by step
Here is one visit in OPALEVI for dental clinics. The words in bold are the names on the screen.
Book
Reception chooses Add appointment, the patient, the service and the dentist; the calendar refuses an hour outside that dentist's hours or on top of another booking. Leave Email the patient a reminder the day before ticked and the patient can be emailed a reminder.
Prepare
An assistant opens the visit, adds the day's services and documents, and presses Mark ready for the dentist. The chart and the record are the dentist's to write.
Chart
Set the Tooth type: (Permanent teeth, Primary teeth or Mixed dentition), choose a finding in the Marking tool (Caries, Filling, Crown, Missing, Implant, Root canal or Treated) and click a tooth or one of its five surfaces.
Probe
Select one tooth to record its six probing depths and open its Periodontal section for recession, plaque, suppuration and furcation; Bleeding on probing and Mobility can be set on several selected teeth at once.
Examine
The Dental examination record below the chart holds the occlusion, the jaw joint, soft-tissue lesions pinned on a picture of the mouth, the Local anaesthesia with its Anaesthetic LOT number, and the Radiographs taken; the images themselves go into Visit documents.
Finish
Add the services done, with the teeth in the Service comment, write the diagnosis and therapy, and press Finish the visit. Under Next steps, whoever issues invoices uses Invoice this visit to copy the services at their prices, and Book a follow-up appointment opens a new booking for the same patient.
What OPALEVI counts for you
Attachment loss at each site is the probing depth plus the recession, shown only where both were measured. Bleeding, plaque and suppuration appear as shares of the charted sites (23.3% of 30 sites, say), and a sign nobody assessed shows no percentage rather than a reassuring zero. The DMFT / dmft index is counted from the marks, primary teeth separately.
Two limits. Crowns, implants and root canals are left out of the DMFT, because the chart does not say why they were placed, and a missing tooth counts whatever the reason. And there is no periodontal stage, grade or healthy threshold: that judgement stays with the dentist.
From treatment plan to offer to invoice
Patients want to know what will be done and what it will cost. OPALEVI has three tools for that, and each does a different job.
The plan the patient takes home
In Treatment plan and estimate, each line of Planned treatment gives the tooth, the procedure, the Phase (Urgent, Phase 1, Phase 2 or Maintenance) and an Estimated cost, and Estimate valid until dates it. Dental treatment plan and estimate prints it with the charted teeth, a table per phase, a Total estimate in the clinic's currency and the aftercare advice the dentist ticked.
The costs are typed by the dentist, not taken from the price list. The sheet adds those it can read, says how many lines it left out, and prints no total, rather than a zero, when it can read none.
The formal offer
For a quote with your conditions, choose New offer under Offers, pick the patient and the Offer terms (your validity, payment and warranty text), and add lines with quantities and prices. Print it, download it as a PDF or use Send by email. It moves from Draft to Sent to Accepted or Rejected; sending fixes the price, and Revise reopens an unanswered offer as a draft.
The invoice
Invoice the offer turns an accepted offer into a regular invoice with the same patient, lines and tax. Visit-by-visit work is billed with Invoice this visit. Invoices can be paid in parts; what is left shows on the patient's file and under Outstanding balances, with Collect beside it.
Plainly: the plan and the offer are separate, and OPALEVI does not copy plan lines into an offer. Plan lines are not ticked off as the work is done. And in the dental workspace, Save as offer keeps a visit and its priced services as a quote, not counted as a debt, until the visit is finished.
The calendar, the front desk and who sees what
OPALEVI schedules by dentist, not by chair: each dentist has a column with their own hours, in day, week, month and list views, and status filters separate the patients still expected from those in the clinic, finished or missed. Two dentists sharing one chair is planned through their working hours.
A Course of treatment books up to 30 sessions at the same hour on the weekdays you choose, or none if one of them clashes. Once online booking is switched on, patients can request a time with the dentist they choose on the clinic's public page, and walk-ins go through Quick admission. The desk's whole day is in our guide to clinic reception software.
Who sees what
- Dentist: charts, writes the record, finishes visits and writes offers.
- Assistant or nurse: prepares visits, but cannot write the chart or finish a visit.
- Reception: books, admits, invoices and takes payment; whether it reads clinical history is one clinic switch.
- Finance: invoices, payments and the cash box; never clinical records.
Permissions can be changed role by role, and the Change history on each visit shows who changed what, the chart included. Crowns made by a laboratory? Its side of the work is in dental lab software, from the order to the paid invoice.
Questions to ask before choosing dental practice software
Ask every program these questions, and answer them with your own patients.
| Question | What to look for | OPALEVI |
|---|---|---|
| Charting by surface? | Five surfaces; permanent, primary and mixed teeth; FDI numbers. | Yes. |
| Indices counted, not typed? | DMFT and the bleeding and plaque shares from the chart. | Yes, with attachment loss. |
| Anaesthetic batch recorded? | Agent, cartridges and LOT on the visit. | Yes. |
| A phased plan to take home? | Lines by phase, a total, a validity date. | Yes. |
| Accepted quote to invoice? | One step, same lines. | Yes: Invoice the offer. |
| Part payments? | A balance per patient and a list of who owes. | Yes. |
| Chairs in the calendar? | A column per chair where chairs are shared. | No: one column per dentist. |
| Six-monthly recall? | A recall list built from the last visit. | No: book the next check-up from the visit or set a follow-up task. |
| A link to the X-ray equipment? | Images arriving from the sensor by themselves. | No: attach the exported images (DICOM accepted). |
| Does the plan feed the quote? | Plan lines copied into the offer. | No: they are entered separately. |
For the general questions, data protection included, read how to choose clinic software. Everything else is on the features page, and the full dentistry record is on the Dentistry department page.
Your first week with OPALEVI in a dental practice
After you register as a dental clinic, First steps on the Today screen guides the setup. Spend the first week like this:
Day 1: prices and letterhead
Replace the starter services with your own under Add your services and prices, and set up the report letterhead.
Day 2: your conditions
Write your validity, payment and warranty conditions under Review the offer terms; each offer prints the terms you choose for it.
Day 3: the team
Invite your colleagues with their roles, and set each dentist's working hours.
Days 4 and 5: real work
Chart this week's patients, print a plan, send an offer and invoice a finished visit.
Begin with patients mid-treatment
Chart first those whose treatment is still running, with what remains of their plan: their estimates and balances are next week's questions.
Frequently asked questions
What is dental practice software?
A program that keeps a dental practice's clinical and business records together: the tooth chart and periodontal readings of each visit, treatment plans with estimates, each dentist's appointments, and the invoices and payments that follow. A good one counts indices such as DMFT from the chart itself.
Can I give a patient a written estimate before treatment?
Yes. The visit's treatment plan prints as a dental treatment plan and estimate, by phase, with a total and a validity date. For a formal quote with your conditions, create an offer under Billing, email or print it, and invoice it in one step once it is accepted.
Can assistants and reception see the tooth chart?
An assistant with the nurse role sees the chart but cannot change it: they prepare the visit, add services and documents, and leave the chart, the record and finishing the visit to the dentist. Reception books and takes payment; whether it may read clinical history depends on one clinic switch. The finance role never reads clinical records. The Dentistry department's record privacy can also be narrowed to its own staff or to the treating dentist.
Does it work on a tablet at the chair?
Yes. OPALEVI opens in the browser of a tablet, laptop or phone beside the chair, and there is nothing to install. On a narrow screen the menu becomes four tabs at the foot of the page, with everything else under “More”. It does need an internet connection.
Can I try OPALEVI before paying?
Yes: a free trial, no card. During it, chart real patients, print a treatment plan and send an offer. When the trial ends without a subscription, nothing is charged and your records stay, read-only. Register as a dental clinic to begin.
How is OPALEVI priced for a dental practice?
OPALEVI is priced per staff member who uses it, and paying for a year at once lowers the monthly rate. Patients, departments and locations are never counted, so the price moves when you hire a hygienist, not when the month is busy. See the pricing page.
