If You Don’t Trust the Numbers in Open Dental

When a dental office brought us in after using Open Dental for two full years without any formal training, I had a feeling we were going to uncover a lot.

And I was right.

One of the first things I noticed?
They weren’t letting the system do its job.
Instead of trusting Open Dental to calculate patient portions, they were doing it manually.
Someone on the team had even created a sheet to figure out estimates by hand.

That was the moment I knew:
We had some serious work to do.

The Real Problem

The issue wasn’t that they were “doing it wrong.”
It’s that no one ever showed them how to set it up right in the first place.

Open Dental can calculate accurate patient portions, but it depends on:

• Insurance plans being set up correctly

• Fee schedules being attached properly

• Coverage percentages and exclusions being understood and updated

Without that foundation?
You're going to end up with a system you can’t trust—and a team that’s stuck overcompensating.

So Much Extra Work (That Didn’t Need to Be There)

It was overwhelming for the team to realize just how much unnecessary effort they were putting in each day.

• They were double-checking everything manually

• Re-explaining charges to patients

• Dealing with frustration and burnout behind the scenes

And worst of all?
There was a mountain of clean-up work waiting for them before they could even begin using the software the way it was designed to be used.

If You Don’t Trust the Numbers—That’s a Sign

If your team doesn’t trust the patient portion Open Dental is showing…
If you’re still using hand-written sheets or outside calculators to verify treatment estimates…
It’s time to pause and ask why.

Because it’s not about working harder—it’s about setting your system up to work for you.

At SKF Practice Solutions, we help offices take a deep breath, dig into the root of the issue, and build a system that’s accurate, efficient, and actually feels good to use.

You don’t have to keep guessing.
And you don’t have to do it alone.