Open Dental stays your practice management system and your schedule. This is a booking page for patients. It checks your schedule through Open Dental's API and writes new appointments back the same way. There is no second calendar to keep in sync, nothing to migrate, and you don't have to turn off eServices.
We issue an API key and you paste it into Open Dental under Setup > Advanced Setup > API. Calls go through the eConnector already running on your server, the same way other Open Dental API clients connect. Nothing is installed on your workstations, and there is no database login, VPN or port forwarding. Your server needs to stay on, because each booking is checked against Open Dental live before it is written.
The page offers times inside the provider hours and appointment types you configured in our dashboard. Right now it does not grey out times that are already booked in Open Dental, so a patient can pick a time that is taken. The live check in the next step catches that. Step 2 / FAQ: 'On Open Dental, online booking currently works only through the new-patient flow, so you need to turn on new-patient online booking in our scheduling settings. A patient who picks "Existing Patient" gets an error and has to go back and choose "New Patient". Because it is the new-patient flow, cleaning and other hygiene appointment types are not offered online for Open Dental offices yet. Returning patients can book exams and other non-hygiene visits.' Setup: add 'Turn on new-patient online booking; without it, Open Dental patients can't complete a booking.' bottomLine: add 'and cleanings can't be booked online yet.' Before creating a chart, we search Open Dental by name and date of birth, then by name alone, then by phone, then by email. A new patient record is created only if nothing matches. A match on name alone, phone alone or email alone can attach the booking to an existing chart even when the date of birth or the name is different (for example, a parent and child with the same name, or family members who share a phone), so check the chart on every online booking. Apply the same change to the FAQ answer and to the writesBack line: 'New patient records, created only when no existing chart matches by name, phone or email.', for example a family member who shares a phone, so check the chart on new online bookings. The separate 'I'm an existing patient' sign-in is not yet available for Open Dental offices.
Add: 'The check looks at the provider's schedule, not the chair. Because the booking goes into the provider's most-used operatory, it can overlap another provider's appointment in that operatory, so look for double-booked chairs when you review online bookings.' and asked to choose another, and nothing is written. Drop 'right away': 'If the time is free, the patient sees a confirmation once the live check finishes, and the chart and appointment are written to Open Dental shortly after.' (Better: fix the code to pass skipProcedures in fetchOpenDentalAppointments before publishing.), and the chart and appointment are written to Open Dental a few seconds later with the date, time and provider they picked. If that write fails, we retry it automatically and the booking is flagged for your team. Every booking goes in at 60 minutes. 'We copy the doctor-time and assistant-time pattern your recent 60-minute appointments use, and use the operatory that provider is most often booked in on your recent schedule.'
Length and operatory are not picked per appointment type, so an online booking can take more time than the visit needs or sit in a different chair than your scheduler would have chosen. Add: 'Online bookings currently carry an "[AI PHONE BOOKING]" note in Open Dental, the same label as phone bookings.' Or fix the note to say '[ONLINE BOOKING]' before publishing. and adjust the length or operatory in Open Dental when they need it. Online booking for Open Dental is newer than our other Open Dental features, so check the first week of bookings closely.
Setup takes a few minutes and involves no migration. You enable the API in Open Dental, paste in the key we issue, and confirm the eConnector is running. Then, in our dashboard, you set each provider's bookable hours and the appointment types patients can choose. We copy your 60-minute appointment pattern and each provider's usual operatory from your existing appointments. Then put the booking link on your website, in your Google profile, or in your texts and emails. Before going live, book a few test appointments and check where they land in the Appointments module. That is the quickest way to see whether the 60-minute length and the chosen operatory suit your schedule.
Web Sched is Open Dental's own online booking, part of eServices. It is configured inside Open Dental, and as Open Dental's manual describes, you define Web Sched appointment types with their own length and time pattern, and link them to the operatories and provider schedules they can book into. That gives it precise control over which chair and how much time each type of booking gets, and that is a real strength. Our online booking uses provider hours and appointment types you set in our dashboard, checks Open Dental live before each booking, and writes new appointments back. Every booking goes in at 60 minutes in the provider's most-used operatory, instead of following per-type rules. If your schedule depends on many appointment types with different lengths, Web Sched may fit better for those. Our version is useful when you want booking to sit alongside the rest of what we run on Open Dental, such as intake forms, reminders and the AI receptionist.
It writes directly, with no request inbox in between. The patient sees their confirmation right away, and the chart and appointment are written to Open Dental a few seconds later. If that write fails, we retry it automatically and the booking is flagged for your team. Online booking for Open Dental is newer than our other Open Dental features, so check the first week of bookings in the Appointments module.
Right before saving, we read Open Dental live for that provider and time. If the time has been taken, including by Web Sched or your front desk, the booking is refused and the patient picks another time. One limit to know about: the time list itself doesn't yet hide times already booked in Open Dental, so a patient may pick a taken time and be asked to choose again. If Open Dental can't be reached at that moment, the booking does not reach your schedule and is flagged for your team, so check the day's online bookings.
Every online booking goes in at 60 minutes, whatever appointment type the patient picked. We copy the doctor-time and assistant-time pattern from your own 60-minute appointments, so the booking blocks the provider the way your hand-booked hours do. If a patient books a 20-minute visit through the page, it still goes in at 60 minutes, and your team adjusts it in Open Dental. That is why we recommend reviewing online bookings each day if you schedule a lot of short appointments.
It goes into the operatory that provider is most often scheduled in, based on your existing appointments. We don't claim it matches the chair your scheduler would have picked for that time. If your providers move between operatories a lot, check where online bookings land and move them if needed.
Yes. Step 2 / FAQ: 'On Open Dental, online booking currently works only through the new-patient flow, so you need to turn on new-patient online booking in our scheduling settings. A patient who picks "Existing Patient" gets an error and has to go back and choose "New Patient". Because it is the new-patient flow, cleaning and other hygiene appointment types are not offered online for Open Dental offices yet. Returning patients can book exams and other non-hygiene visits.' Setup: add 'Turn on new-patient online booking; without it, Open Dental patients can't complete a booking.' bottomLine: add 'and cleanings can't be booked online yet.' Before creating a chart, we look for an existing one by name and date of birth, then by phone and email, and only create a new patient record if nothing matches. A single phone or email match can attach the booking to that chart even if the name is different, so check the chart on new online bookings. The separate 'I'm an existing patient' sign-in is not yet available for Open Dental offices. 'We don't record the online booking page as its own referral source in Open Dental yet, and a new chart created from an online booking may show "AI Voice Receptionist" as its referral source. Correct it in Open Dental if you track referral sources.' (Or fix the code so it uses 'Online Booking' when booked_via='self_schedule'.)
Patients can cancel, or ask to move their appointment, from the self-service link in their reminder. A cancellation sets the appointment to Broken in Open Dental with a note giving the reason, and your office gets an email. That note replaces any existing appointment note. Your team can also reschedule from the dashboard, and the AI receptionist can on the phone. On Open Dental a reschedule books the new time and then breaks the original appointment.
No. '…and our live check before saving looks at what Web Sched and your front desk have booked. If that read of Open Dental fails, the check can't see your schedule, so a conflicting time can get through. That is one more reason to review online bookings each day.' FAQ: 'If Open Dental can't be reached, the patient may still see a confirmation, but the appointment doesn't reach your schedule until our retry succeeds. If it keeps failing, your team is emailed to finish it by hand.' If you run both, decide which booking link goes where, so patients aren't sent to two different pages.
No. It works through Open Dental's API and the eConnector already on your server. You enable the API and add the key we issue. You can turn that key off inside Open Dental whenever you like, and then we lose access.
If you run Open Dental and want patients to book online, this offers times inside the provider hours you set, checks Open Dental live before every booking, and writes the booking in as a new appointment. Be clear about the trade-offs. Every online booking is 60 minutes in the provider's most-used operatory, the time list doesn't yet hide times already booked in Open Dental, and returning patients go through the new-patient flow with chart matching. It does not apply per-type rules the way Web Sched does. If most of your appointments run about an hour, that works well. If you book a lot of short visits, plan on a quick daily review of what came in online, and check the first week of bookings closely either way.
Open Dental is a trademark of Open Dental Software, Inc. Intake.Dental is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Open Dental Software, Inc.
Patients pick from the hours and appointment types you set up for each provider in our dashboard. Before a booking is saved, we check Open Dental live for that provider and time. If the time is still free, it goes in as a new appointment in your Appointments module. Before you compare it with Web Sched, you should know two things. Every online booking goes in at 60 minutes, whatever appointment type the patient picked, and it goes in the operatory that provider uses most. If you run a lot of short appointment types, your team should look over online bookings.
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