Dental patient portal software

A dental patient portal is a secure website where patients sign in to see their own information and do things for themselves. Instead of phoning the practice to ask about an appointment, a balance or a form, the patient looks it up and acts online. It saves the front desk time and gives patients control.

The best portals are not a separate product bolted on. They show live information from the same diary, ledger and records the team uses, so nothing has to be re-keyed and nothing goes out of date. That is how the DentiPoint portal works.

Practices use a portal to cut routine phone calls, speed up payments and collect forms before the patient arrives. Fewer calls free the front desk for patients in the building, and forms filled in at home mean a shorter first appointment. Patients, for their part, can get an answer at any hour.

• Fewer calls. Questions about times, balances and forms are answered on screen.
• Faster payment. A balance with a pay button is paid sooner than a balance on a letter.
• Complete records. Forms and documents arrive in the record, not in an inbox.
• Better family handling. One sign-in can cover a household, with clear rules on who can act for whom.

We cover the wider case in our guide to the benefits of a dental patient portal.

Check that it uses live data, that patients can pay, that forms and documents flow both ways, and that family access is handled safely. Ask also how patients sign in and who can act for whom, because a portal holds sensitive health information.

• Does it show live appointments, or a copy that can be out of date?
• Can patients pay a balance, and does it update the ledger straight away?
• Can you share documents and send forms by link?
• How does a parent or carer act for someone else, and is that controlled?
• Is it a login your patients can use without a password to remember?

Patient data brings legal duties. Our guide to dental practice GDPR and patient data explains consent and retention. For the whole system around the portal, see dental practice management software.