Any Former Dentrix users?

[Stan]

It's looking more and more like I'll be a former Dentrix user. Just installed a new server last month (windows 64-bit) and upgraded to G5 over a week ago. We signed up some time ago for eCentral as the Communication Manager and Website/kiosk looked intriguing. We've had a tech work on our server every day for the past week and a half as Dentrix/eCentral are not playing well together. Biggest problem is that eSync is not syncing the data back to the server. Also can't install it on one of the workstations. Had a tech on the server all day Friday and when he couldn't do any more, he simply logged out and left the antivirus disabled. Another tech worked on the server Saturday midnight (yes, Saturday night) and left the system such that the Dentrix database cannot be found...essentially rendering the program useless. I've spent all day today trying to find a fix. I could not. Needless to say, I'll be beginning tomorrow without a practice management program operational. I'm beginning to wonder if they have any competent techs. For me, this has become par for the course with Henry Schein...and the last straw.

So I ask: Has anyone been currently on Open Dental switched from Dentrix? And if so, how has your experience been? Anyone using email/text appointment notifications (our main attraction to eCentral) and online forms management? If so, are they from third party vendors?

[drtech]

We used Dentrix for 12 years before switching to OD 7 years ago. OD is lots better, you won't look back. Do it.

[jordansparks]

Our online forms management is good. Our appointment notifications are weak and would probably require a third party vendor, especially for text messages. But we have a number of third party vendors to pick from, and the integration is very good because we encourage and help the third party vendors rather than obstructing them like Dentrix does.

[Stan]

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate the honesty Jordan.

Jordan, now that Dentrix has switched over to an SQL database, what would you say were the strengths/weaknesses of both? Have you converted the Dentrix SQL database over to OD yet?

[jordansparks]

Took them long enough. It will help in some areas of the program, but their database is still poorly optimized for SQL. It will take a number of revisions for the benefits to become apparent. They still have a tangle of little windows to navigate through. They still don't have their original programmer, which means they don't really understand what's going on under the hood. Every change they make is, therefore, dangerous and expensive. And worst of all, completely unacceptable really, is that they don't give you access to your database.

[bpcomp]

We just switched from Dentrix in the middle of September 2011. Nothing but happy times here. Our practice had been running Dentrix 11 (really old version) and were dreading moving to a newer version. With an estimated cost of $17,000 to upgrade computers through out the office in order to be able to even install and run the new version of Dentrix, we decided to give the 37MB OpenDental trial a go. It runs stable and fast on all our older machines which means we don't have to upgrade all the computers at once. As they die naturally we will change them out. Tech support with OpenDental is much more available and more helpful as they will remote in and show you how to do anything. In your case as long as their conversion team is able to get you in, you can probably have your whole patient database converted and have functional patient data in one day. As for how long it takes you to customize OD to your liking and training your staff.... who can say. If you've got a week before you pull the trigger then just install OD trial and start playing and have your staff start learning it also. In that time frame they can do whatever they want and not worry about messing up live patient data. When everyone is at least partly familiar with the product you can switch over. Our office spent over a month learning and when we finally pulled the trigger it was literally a couple of hours of conversion and we were live with OD.