In a dental practice, it is vital for the dentists, dental assistants, hygienists, front office staff, managers and lab technicians to work together seamlessly and understand the terms used in the dental profession. Effective communication in a dental practice provides a foundation for everything else that the team does. This should also apply to the digital technologies used in dental practices.
Dental practices can realize a digitally enabled workflow by using open digital platforms. An open digital platform is a software system that is based on open standards like fully documented and published external application programming interfaces. These interfaces allow the software to be used in other ways other than the manner in which the original programmer intended, without having to modify the source code. By using the interfaces, third parties may integrate with the open digital platforms to add functionality. This is not possible with a closed digital platform.
An open digital platform can exchange information seamlessly with another platform. The file formats that the software and hardware use do not need proprietary programs, which have to be licensed by specific vendors. For instance, when using an intraoral scanner, an open digital platform will create a three dimensional model that many different design programs can open and the images could be sent to various mills or printers. You only need to connect the device to a computer in order for it to work. No extra purchases or steps are required to make use of the technology.
The most familiar closed digital platforms that dental offices deal with every day is the practice management system, which usually contains the outpatient records. It can be daunting to transfer a record from one system to the other when using a closed digital platform. Transferability is possible between different practices that are running the same version of a specific practice management system. Within such a system, there may be photographs, radiographs and 3 dimensional intraoral scans that could be attached to patients’ records, but the file cannot be recognized by other systems as a whole.
The unique challenges of digital dentistry illustrate the importance of open digital platforms to the successful integration of various technologies under the same roof and the ease of communication between the labs and practices that need to use the files. If the types of files that one side generates cannot be opened from the other side, then it is essential to use third party middleman software or buy the proprietary platforms required to read those files. This can be costly for your dental practice. Using open digital platforms is cost effective. These platforms also facilitate innovation, experimentation and enable new technologies to emerge and be integrated quickly, since they are designed using the same language. Focusing on open digital platforms is important as the field of digital dentistry continues to rapidly evolve.
Dentee offers an open digital platform that is beneficial for dental practices. We offer fully integrated, innovative and online dental practice management software that can optimize the administration of your dental practice. This software is designed for single or multiple users in a network environment. The key features of this dental practice management software include appointment and schedulers, electronic patient records, document management, lab management and inventory management.
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