And That’s Why We Train as a Team

When we’re brought in to do a basic Open Dental training, we don’t just sit the front desk team down and show them how to enter insurance.

We train the entire team — front and back — and we train them together.

Now, I get it.
The clinical team probably isn’t the one entering new patients or attaching insurance plans.
And the admin team likely isn’t doing chart notes or clicking through procedures in the Progress Notes.

But here’s the thing:
Everything that happens in Open Dental is connected.
What’s done in the front affects the back.
What’s missed in the back affects the billing.
And if even one piece of the puzzle is off… the whole picture starts to shift.

Why We Train in Every Module

During our trainings, I make sure every team member spends time working in every module — even the ones they don’t “use.”

• Front office learns to chart treatment
  

• Clinical team walks through setting up insurance plans.
  

• Everyone sees what happens when information is input correctly (and what happens when it’s not)
  

And that’s not just to build skills. It’s to build understanding.

Because one of the most eye-opening moments I’ve ever had came from a clinical team member who said:

“I had no idea the front office needed my chart notes to send the claims.”

That’s when it hit me — we can’t assume people know how their role impacts the rest of the team.

"You Only Know What You Know"

I say this all the time in training:

You only know what you know.

It’s not about judgment.
It’s about awareness.

When we enter information into Open Dental, the software uses that data as its source of truth.
If it’s wrong, unclear, or incomplete — the system doesn’t question it. It just moves forward with what it was given.

That’s why training matters so much.
Because Open Dental can only be as powerful as the people using it — and the people using it can only go as far as they’ve been shown.

If Your Team Feels Disconnected…

If there’s tension between the front and back…
If treatment plans don’t feel accurate…
If claims keep getting rejected and no one’s sure why…

It might not be a “people” problem.

It might be a system problem.

Or more often — a training gap.

When teams see the full picture, everything changes.
There’s more grace.
More accountability.
And way less chaos.

At SKF Practice Solutions, we train differently because we know what’s at stake.
It’s not just about knowing how to use Open Dental — it’s about knowing why it all matters.

And when everyone’s on the same page?
That’s when the real magic starts to happen.