Caveat: dentaldesk is the most cautious product we ship. It holds PHI. It has HIPAA exposure. It has to be right. If you're thinking about self-hosting PHI for your practice, understand the risk before you clone this repo.
That said — dentaldesk exists because the dental practice management software market is bimodal: enterprise tools that charge $400-800/month and assume 3+ chairs, or Open Dental, which is free but has a Windows-only desktop UI from 2007 and a learning curve best measured in weekends.
A 1-3 dentist practice in the middle doesn't have a great option. This is that option.
What It Does
- Patient charts. Demographics, medical history, medications, allergies, insurance. Per-tooth chart with caries, restorations, extractions. Side-by-side visit photos. Searchable by name, phone, DOB.
- Per-operator scheduling. Columns for each dentist / hygienist. Drag-to-reschedule. Double-booking protection. Block out lunch, PTO. Patient-facing reminder texts 24h + 2h before.
- Treatment plans. Build from ADA codes. Plan vs estimate vs patient out-of-pocket computed against stored insurance rules. Patient signs before work begins; plan versions tracked.
- Recall scheduling. Every patient on 6-month recall. System auto-creates recall tasks 5 months out; schedules via email/SMS link; falls through to front-desk if not booked in 10 days.
- Perio charting. Pockets + bleeding + mobility per tooth per visit. Side-by-side comparison visit-over-visit. Flag sites regressing for hygienist attention.
The Treatment-Plan Logic
This is where most of the code lives. A treatment plan is a collection of ADA-code line items, each with:
- Provider charge. What the dentist bills for the procedure.
- Insurance allowed amount. What the patient's insurance will accept as reasonable, based on the fee schedule for that carrier.
- Patient portion. Allowed amount minus what insurance pays (after deductible and coinsurance).
- Remaining annual max. The patient's remaining insurance benefit for the year.
Getting this math right is table stakes. Getting it fast is the differentiator. dentaldesk caches carrier fee schedules per insurance plan and recomputes patient portions in real-time as the dentist is building the plan. The patient sees their out-of-pocket before they leave the chair.
Recall That Actually Works
Most small practices lose 15-30% of patients to recall failure. The patient's last cleaning was 11 months ago. Nobody scheduled the next one. The practice gradually thins out.
dentaldesk doesn't let that happen. Every completed hygiene visit auto-creates a recall task 5 months out. Five months out, the task fires a personalized email or SMS with a booking link. If they don't book in 10 days, the task escalates to the front desk's "reach out" list. The only way a patient drops off recall is if the practice deliberately inactivates them.
The HIPAA Conversation
HIPAA compliance is not a checkbox. It's a set of administrative, physical, and technical safeguards, and a signed Business Associate Agreement with any third party handling PHI on your behalf.
Self-hosted dentaldesk: you are the covered entity. The software has technical safeguards (encryption at rest, audit logging, role-based access, session timeouts). The administrative and physical safeguards are on you (staff training, locked server room, break-glass procedures). We provide the software; you provide the practice.
Hosted dentaldesk: we sign a BAA. Our infrastructure has the technical safeguards. You still own the administrative and physical safeguards in your office. Our HIPAA documentation explains the split in plain language.
If "running my own server" is not a thing you want to do, go Hosted. If you have an office manager comfortable with a Linux box in the closet, self-host. Both are legitimate.
Pricing
- Self-host: $0. Complete features. You operate your own infrastructure.
- Hosted Pro: $99/mo. Managed, SMS reminders, insurance eligibility check, BAA included.
- Multi-office: $299/mo. Multi-office accounts, DICOM X-ray attach, patient portal + online intake, SSO.
At $99/month vs $400-800 for Dentrix/Eaglesoft, the hosted math is clear. At $0 for self-host, it's absurd. The trade is complexity — self-hosting requires technical competence that not every small practice has.
I'd rather you run a commercial product well than run dentaldesk poorly. If you don't have a person in the office who can confidently answer 'what's SSH,' the Hosted tier is the right answer.
What's Not In It
X-ray imaging (DICOM) is in the top tier only and requires DICOM-aware hardware integration that's specific to your sensor vendor. Insurance eligibility real-time checks are in Hosted Pro and above — self-host gets manual plan entry. Accounting integration is roadmap. Lab case tracking is roadmap.
This is a 1-3 dentist, general-practice tool. Orthodontics, endodontics, pediatric specialty work, and oral surgery have workflow needs we don't cover yet. A future "dentaldesk-ortho" is possible if demand's there.
Related
shiftfill for hygienist scheduling across staff. coachboard as a different-audience cousin on the client-relationship side. meetingmind for morning huddles (they matter in dental offices more than people realize).
Repo: github.com/Dangercorn-Enterprises/dentaldesk. Clinical review wanted before this goes live at anyone's actual practice.