Five of the best dentistry EHRs

Dental providers, unlike their peers in other areas of medicine, have lagged in EHR adoption rates. The reason for dentistry’s comparatively slow EHR adoption rate could be attributed to a number of complicated factors which are beyond the focus of this article. However, director of healthcare solutions at DataMotion Andy Nieto notes that one reason dentists have lagged behind in EHR adoption rests in the fact that “Dental practices have an established documentation process which does not lend itself to what I would call clinical or ambulatory medicine EHRs."

Yet despite the unique features of dental practices which may not lend themselves to traditional EHR adoption, dentists can benefit greatly from adopting dentistry specific-products. The following list provides an overview of five of the best EHR systems for dentists.  

1. Planet DDS Denticon

Denticon offers web-based dentistry EHR, which according to the vendor’s product description is built for multi-location dental groups with their biggest client holding three hundred offices. The system offers a customizable suite of options that include add-ons for practice management and revenue cycle management.

2. ACE Dental

ACE Dental offers a scalable, on-premises practice management solution with a variety of features for aiding in the day-to-day management of a dental office. It is suitable for general dentistry practices: orthodontics, endodontics, oral surgery, and pediatric dentistry.

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Features within the system include appointment scheduling with the ability to set automated appointment reminders and appointment pre-blocking; claims processing and billing, patient and family ledgers, fully integrated word processing and mail merge, prescription writer, 3D restorative charting, visual treatment planning and auto clinical notes

3. RxNT

RxNT offers a suite of cloud-based solutions which are compatible for use on a mobile device. RxNTs allows to clinicians to gain access to a practice management tool mobile iPad check-in options in addition to aging snapshots, practice-specific alerts, and provider payments/charges snapshots. Most unique among the features offered is the customizable patient encounter module which acts a patient engagement tool by allowing users to electronically view and order lab testing and results.

4. MOGO Cloud

MOGO Cloud, as the name implies, offers a cloud-based, all-in-one software solution suitable for general dentists and specialists, including orthodontists, oral surgeons, periodontists, endodontists, and pediatric dentists.

MOGO offers billing, patient scheduling, and digital imaging applications including line-item billing, employee tracking, electronic signature capture, intra-office messaging system, and a patient portal that allows for online patient registration/medical history forms and diagnostic reports. Further, the patient engagement functions also allow for appointment reminder, recall cards, and appointment confirmations. MOGO also can track patient responsiveness data to allow providers to try other methods on hard to reach patients.

5. Curve Dental

Curve Dental is a web-based system which offers the standard suite of functionality. Curve’s focus involves improving office workflow by offering a user-friendly charting and EHR navigation system and easy to generate and read reports.

One should not confuse the comparatively lower EHR adoption rate among dentists with a lack of dentistry-specific systems. The market offers an excellent variety of options that provide flexibility and scalability for practices that have an outdated or otherwise unsuitable EHR.