5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Switching to Open Dental

If you've spent any time in dental forums lately, you've probably seen Open Dental come up... a lot. And honestly? There's a reason for that. But just because a software keeps showing up in your feed doesn't mean you're ready to make the switch. Before you pull the trigger, there are five questions worth sitting with first.

Consider this your pre-conversion clarity check, from your Open Dental besties.

1. Have you identified your why?

This one sounds obvious, but it's where most practices go wrong. It's easy to get laser-focused on one specific frustration, maybe it's your current software's reporting, or the fact that updates cost you every single time, and build an entire conversion plan around solving that one thing.

But here's the truth: if you go into a conversion with tunnel vision, you'll miss the bigger picture. Switching to Open Dental isn't just swapping one system for another. It's a full reset of how your practice runs. That means your setup, your workflows, your fee schedules, your chart buttons, your auto notes... all of it. Know what you're solving for, but don't forget to zoom out.

2. Who is owning this project internally?

A conversion without a project owner is a conversion waiting to fail. Someone on your team needs to be the point person, whether that's your office manager, your lead coordinator, or you as the owner. Without clear ownership, tasks fall through the cracks, timelines slip, and suddenly you're three weeks in with a half-built system and a confused team.

This doesn't mean one person does everything. It means one person is accountable. Big difference.

3. How will claims, verifications, and billing be handled during and after the switch?

Revenue cycle doesn't pause for a conversion. Eligibility still needs to be verified. Claims still need to go out. Payments still need to post. This is the part practices underestimate most... and it's the part that can quietly tank your collections if you don't have a plan.

Think through your billing workflow from start to finish and ask yourself what breaks if your team is in learning mode for two to four weeks. Then build a bridge for that gap before you start.

4. What does our actual training plan look like?

This is where I have to be honest with you. Yes, you can technically train on YouTube. There are genuinely good Open Dental videos out there, and the documentation is solid. But "technically trainable" and "actually trained" are two very different things.

I've seen it play out more times than I can count. An office converts, trains on YouTube, and feels good about it. Then three to five years later, they call us. And what we find are knowledge gaps they didn't even know they had, bad habits baked into their daily workflows, and cleanup that's going to cost thousands of dollars and a whole lot of team retraining to fix.

Free training has a price. It just shows up later.

5. What does support look like after go-live?

Go-live is not the finish line. It's actually when the real questions start. Your team is going to hit things they don't know how to handle. Edge cases. Billing scenarios that don't fit the standard workflow. Setup decisions they made on day one that are now causing downstream problems.

Before you convert, get clear on who you're calling when something goes sideways. Is it your software vendor? A consultant? A forum thread? Know the answer before you need it, not after.

Switching to Open Dental can genuinely transform how your practice runs. The efficiency gains are real, the customization is unmatched, and the cost model makes sense long-term. But the switch itself? It deserves more than a weekend and a YouTube playlist.

👉 SKF Practice Solutions

Ask the questions first. Make the move with a plan.