Open Dental stays your practice management system and your chart of record. This replaces the clipboard, not Open Dental. It reads from and writes to Open Dental in real time through Open Dental's API, and the completed paperwork goes into the same Imaging module your team already uses.
You send the intake link by text or email, or put it on your website. The patient fills in demographics, insurance, health history, allergies and medications, takes photos of the front and back of their insurance card, and signs on their phone. Your team no longer re-keys the basics, and the signed paperwork is already in the chart. Some things still have to be entered by hand in Open Dental, and this page lists them, including the patient's insurance plan details.
When the form is submitted, we search Open Dental for the patient's existing chart. If we find it, the paperwork goes to that chart, and the email, cell phone, birthdate and address the patient typed are written to it. If we don't, we run a duplicate check first and then create a new patient in Open Dental with name, email, cell phone, birthdate and SSN (only when the patient entered all 9 digits). Address, gender and language are not sent when the chart is created, so your team adds those from the PDF. This is running in production: in October 2026 a new patient's intake at one of our Open Dental offices created their chart this way, and their forms were filed to it.
The completed intake and health history are filed as a signed PDF in the patient's Imaging module, with a description such as 'Online Intake Forms' or 'Online Health History' (Open Dental puts the date in front). We choose the folder by name from your own Imaging categories: Medical History first, then Patient Information, then Miscellaneous. If you have none of those folders, the PDF goes into the first folder in your Imaging tree. The insurance card photos are included in that PDF, so the front desk can see the card without asking the patient for it again.
Allergies are sent to Open Dental as structured allergies when they match an entry on your Open Dental allergy list. Matching ignores capitalization and punctuation and handles common misspellings and abbreviations (Asprin, PCN, sulfa). Answers like NKDA or None are not filed as allergies. Medications are added to the patient's medication list when they match your Open Dental medication list; a typed strength must match a strength-specific entry. Both parts are new and not yet confirmed on a live chart, so treat the signed PDF as the record and check the Medical window. Allergies that don't match are not filed, and the office isn't sent a separate alert. Medications that don't match are recorded on the intake for your team to add. Every allergy and medication the patient lists is always in the PDF. Medical conditions are not written as Open Dental problems on purpose: when we tested this against one office's problem list, 46 of 48 real conditions had no match and would have been silently dropped.
Setup is a connection, not a migration. We issue you an Open Dental API key. In Open Dental you check that the eConnector is running, turn on the API, and paste the key with Add Key. Then you click Connect in our dashboard. It takes about five minutes. Nothing is installed on your workstations, and you don't need database credentials, a VPN or port forwarding. You need Open Dental version 21.3 or later. If you're on Open Dental Cloud, ask us first: we haven't connected a cloud-hosted office yet. Before you go live, check that your Imaging module has a Medical History or Patient Information folder, and that the allergies and medications your patients commonly report are on your Open Dental lists, because allergies that aren't on your list are not filed, and medications that aren't on it are left for your team to add. Filing to the Open Dental chart needs the Open Dental connection. That comes with Practice Autopilot ($999.99/mo) or AI Dental Office ($1,499.99/mo), or as the Complete Automation add-on ($499.99/mo) on top of Digital Forms ($79.99/mo). All plans are month to month, with a 14-day trial and a BAA.
Yes, when there's no existing chart. We check for a duplicate first. If none is found, we create the patient in Open Dental with name, email, cell phone, birthdate and SSN (only if all 9 digits were entered), and the forms are filed to that new chart. Address, gender and language are not sent when the chart is created. They are in the PDF for your team to enter.
In the patient's Imaging module, as a signed PDF with a description such as 'Online Intake Forms' or 'Online Health History' (Open Dental puts the date in front). We choose the folder by name from your Imaging categories: Medical History, then Patient Information, then Miscellaneous. If you have none of those, it goes in the first folder in your Imaging tree.
Yes. When the form is matched to an existing chart, the email, cell phone, birthdate, street address, city, state and ZIP the patient typed are written to that chart. Before anything is written, we read the chart and check that it matches the patient on two of first name, last name and birthdate; if it doesn't, nothing is changed. Fields the patient left empty are never sent, so nothing is blanked, and a birthdate that isn't a real date is skipped. Names are only changed when they really differ, such as a new married last name; a nickname or a different capitalization is left alone.
Partly. Allergies that match your Open Dental allergy list are sent as structured allergies, and matching handles capitalization, punctuation and common misspellings or abbreviations such as Asprin or PCN. Medications that match your Open Dental medication list are added to the patient's medication list. Both parts are new and not yet confirmed on a live chart, so treat the signed PDF as the record and check the Medical window. Allergies that don't match are not filed, and the office isn't sent a separate alert. Medications that don't match are recorded on the intake for your team to add. Medical conditions are not written as Open Dental problems on purpose, because when we tested it against one office's problem list, 46 of 48 real answers had no match and would have been dropped without warning. All of it is in the signed intake PDF in Imaging.
Not by itself. The carrier, member ID and group number the patient types, and the card photos, are in the signed PDF. When your team verifies that insurance from our dashboard, the verified plan can be added to the patient's Open Dental chart, as long as the patient is the policyholder and has no insurance on file. Dependents and second plans are added by your front desk.
They reach the chart inside the intake PDF. The front and back of the card are included in the PDF filed to Imaging. They are not uploaded as separate image documents, so you'll find them by opening the intake PDF.
It connects through Open Dental's API, which your eConnector serves. You need a version of Open Dental recent enough to include the API endpoints we use (version 21.3 or later), the eConnector running, and the API enabled. If you're on Open Dental Cloud, ask us first: we haven't connected a cloud-hosted office yet. There is no database connection and nothing is installed on your workstations. The server running the eConnector needs to be on when patients submit. If it's off at that moment, that form is not filed to Open Dental later on its own. It stays in your Intake.Dental dashboard, and your team files it by hand.
No, but you don't have to turn them off first either. You can run both while you decide. This covers intake, health history and consent forms that file to the chart. It doesn't replace the rest of eServices.
Digital Forms is $79.99 a month. Filing those forms into Open Dental needs the Open Dental connection, which is the Complete Automation add-on ($499.99/mo) or is included in Practice Autopilot ($999.99/mo) and AI Dental Office ($1,499.99/mo). 14-day free trial, month to month, BAA on every plan.
Yes. We sign a BAA, PHI is encrypted at the field level at rest, and access is limited to your practice. The Open Dental API key can be disabled from inside Open Dental at any time.
If you run Open Dental and still type intake from clipboards, this moves the paperwork onto the patient's phone and files the signed result into the chart. It matches the chart or creates one after a duplicate check, writes the patient's updated address, phone, email and birthdate to a matched chart, and files the PDF with the insurance card images to your Imaging module by folder name. Allergies and medications that match your Open Dental lists are sent to the chart; conditions and anything unmatched stay in the PDF. Filing to Open Dental needs the Open Dental connection: the Complete Automation add-on ($499.99/mo) on top of Digital Forms ($79.99/mo), or included in Practice Autopilot ($999.99/mo) and AI Dental Office ($1,499.99/mo). 14-day trial, month to month, BAA on every plan.
Open Dental is a trademark of Open Dental Software, Inc. Intake.Dental is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Open Dental Software, Inc.
You keep Open Dental. Patients fill out their new patient paperwork and health history on their phone before the visit. When they finish, the form is matched to their existing Open Dental chart, or a new chart is created if there isn't one. On a matched chart, the address, phone, email and birthdate they typed are written to the chart. The signed PDF is filed into your Imaging module by folder name. Allergies and medications that match your Open Dental lists are also sent to the chart (new, not yet confirmed on a live chart). Everything else, including medical conditions, stays in the PDF, and this page explains exactly what does and doesn't get written.
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