Denticon by Planet DDS Review, Pricing & Features

What is Denticon?

Denticon by Planet DDS is a popular cloud-based dental practice management software used by thousands of dental professionals to improve their practices. It is a mature, fully-featured product that optimizes a variety of important tasks including scheduling, charting, and reporting. Denticon's dental software is designed to scale, making it ideal for growing multi-location practices.

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Table of Contents

Denticon Pricing & Cost

Denticon pricing starts at $280 per month for one user & one location. Other pricing details include:

  • Monthly subscription fee
  • No upfront licensing costs
  • Requires separate subscriptions with DoseSpot and Updox
  • Free demo

Full Review

Founded in 2004, Planet DDS is one of the industry’s pioneers in providing a purely cloud-based dental practice management software. Planet DDS's flagship software, Denticon, is one of the most mature, fully-featured solutions on the market. It is equipped with all the major features that dental practices need including scheduling, charting & note-taking, billing & claims, and reporting.

Customers often choose Denticon because they want to move to a cloud-based system managed by a reputable company. If you are deciding between a cloud-based and on-premise solutions, consider these pros and cons.

Software TypeProsCons
Cloud-based
  • Best for multi-location practices
  • Sync your data across all locations
  • Scalability
  • No server purchase or maintenance
  • Automatic software updates & data back-up
  • Requires a reliable internet connection
  • In some cases, SaaS subscription may be more expensive than license+maintenance for on-premise
  • Must trust vendor with data security
On-premise
  • In the long run, the cost for licenses, servers, and IT support may be cheaper than a monthly subscription to a cloud-based service
  • Requires no internet connection
  • Full control over technology and data
  • Higher upfront costs for software, hardware, and infrastructure
  • Recurring cost for IT support
  • Data is only accessible on-site
  • Manual software updates & data back-up
  • Limited storage

Denticon is a solid choice for both single and multi-location practices. Currently, about 60% of Denticon’s users belong to multi-location practices. Denticon’s support staff has extensive experience in performing data conversions from virtually all PMS solutions, which can help make the transition process as smooth as possible.

Overall, Denticon is a fully-featured practice management system managed by one of the most experienced vendors on the market. We highly recommend Denticon for practices with multiple locations who want to move the cloud.

Denticon Features

Below, we discuss some of the key features of Denticon, and how they can benefit your practice.

Appointments and Scheduling

Denticon provides an appointment booking widget, which you can put on your website or Facebook page, that enables patients to book appointments online. Patients can search for dentists within your practice, and schedule appointments with any available dentist. Other appointment booking software will enable customers to search for dentists outside of your practice, which can lead your potential patients to other dentists, resulting in lost revenue. Denticon will only direct patients to dentists in your practice, and will keep the user on your website, instead of driving valuable web traffic to other sites.

Denticon Booking Module

You can ask new patients to fill out paperwork (patient health history, responsible party information, insurance information, etc.) online, so that when they show up to their appointment, you already have their information. This greatly improves the patient’s experience, and helps to reduce the anxiety of the registration process. When the patient arrives for their appointment, you’ll already have all of their insurance information ready.

Denticon Online Patient Registration

Charting

Denticon is equipped with fully-featured charting modules. This tool allows you to spend less time taking notes, so you can focus on other important tasks like marketing & patient care. There are four tabs found in the charting module.

  • Restorative charting: User-friendly odontogram enables you to quickly and accurately add pre-existing conditions, patient notes, and treatment plans.
  • Perio charting: Perio examinations in Denticon are augmented with advanced features including view toggling, voice-activated perio charting, and specialized templates.
  • X-ray: Integrated imaging allows you to view and edit images directly in the charting module. X-rays are embedded in the odontogram.
  • Progress notes: Progress notes are embedded directly into your charting module. Also, you can create custom macros, which helps you enter repetitive information quickly.

Charting can be easily found inside the application. Click on the charting header, or click any of the charting icons on the toolbar. Here is a screenshot of an embedded x-ray in restorative charting.

denticon xray 2

To learn more, read our in-depth analysis of Denticon Charting.

Billing

Denticon is equipped with useful tools to help you quickly and accurately preform important billing-related tasks. Important tasks you can accomplish include:

  • Create and send electronic billing statements
  • Manage payment options
  • Manage credit & debit adjustments
  • Add procedures & ICD code
  • Cross-code dental and medical procedures

Credit Card Processing

You can charge patients directly in Denticon using credit and debit cards. Also, Denticon’s integrated credit card billing allows you to create payment contracts, and automatically charge periodic amounts.

Claims

Denticon helps you create accurate insurance claims, so you are reimbursed as quickly as possible. Important tasks that you can perform in Denticon include:

  • Add fee schedules
  • Track patient eligibility
  • Attach required images and documentation

Electronic claims can only be sent through DentalXChange, but Denticon has informed us that it is working on partnering with other clearinghouses. This limitation may be a deal breaker if you are committed to another electronic claims services.

Reporting

Denticon really shines with its reporting capabilities, which enable enterprise practices to get a consolidated view of performance across all of their offices. As a multi-location dental practice, it can be challenging to aggregate data across your different locations, in order to identify areas of improvement or gain a clearer idea of financial performance. For multi-location practices that have acquired dental practices with legacy software, it can be especially difficult to compile the relevant metrics and aggregate them in a digestible manner. Various practice management software solutions store their data in different formats, or may not even provide certain metrics that may be of interest to you. Denticon solves this problem by collecting and storing all of your data across different offices in a standardized manner. As a result, you can pull reports across all of your offices, or by various segments of your choosing.

Denticon Analytics Dashboard

Another benefit to having a unified practice management software solution is that patient activity, as well as provider activity, is tracked in one central location rather than maintaining a separate patient or provider record for each location. For practitioners who work across multiple offices, it’s straightforward to pull a report that has all of their activity across all locations. This is important for groups that compensate their providers based on a percentage of collections, since it makes it easy to figure out how much to pay their dentists. Similarly, if a patient is seen across multiple locations, practitioners can easily access their full history of treatments, instead of having to pull reports from each location.

Read our in-depth analysis of Denticon reporting.

Virtual Business Services

Outside of its practice management software, Planet DDS also offers what it calls “Virtual Business Services” (VBS), which is a pay-as-you-go service that enables you to outsource certain administrative tasks to one of Planet DDS’ expert in-house VBS agents. With VBS, you can outsource things like insurance verifications, insurance plan entry, fee schedule entry, claims submission, and claims follow-up. By outsourcing many of these tasks, you can reduce A/R days, and accelerate the cash conversion cycle. This service doesn’t require any long-term contract, and is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis with no minimum, which makes it a popular service around the holidays, or when offices find themselves particularly understaffed. Many customers like to use VBS when they first transition to Denticon, so that their staff can focus on the software transition, rather than dealing with these administrative tasks.

Roughly 50-60% of Planet DDS’s customers use their Virtual Business Services in some capacity, either on a short or long-term basis. Read our in-depth analysis of Planet DDS’ Virtual Business Services.

Accessibility & Security

Since Denticon is web-based, dentists and staff can access the software anywhere they have internet access, including from a mobile device. This flexibility is particularly helpful for users who want to be able to access their schedules outside of the office. But Denticon also offers additional security restrictions to ensure that users can only access data that they need.

For example, you can specify that certain users can only access a specific type of information during limited hours of the day, or from certain IP addresses (e.g. it may not make sense for certain users to be able to access patient charts outside of business hours). The added benefit is that in the event that any of your physical devices (laptops or mobile phones) is compromised, you can restrict the settings so that sensitive patient data isn’t at risk. This is important, since loss of physical devices is one of the most common sources of data breaches and HIPAA violations. With Denticon, even if one of your physical devices is stolen, patient information will still be secure since it’s stored on Denticon’s servers, as opposed to locally on your devices. However, as soon as one of your devices is reported as being lost, it would be recommended to change your Denticon login credentials.

Denticon Odontogram

Additional Modules

Denticon also offers additional modules to complement its practice management software. Some customers opt not to purchase these modules if they are using an alternative they already like.

Dentiray

Dentiray is the Denticon imaging bridge, which enables users to quickly send and access images in the cloud. It is compatible with over 96% of all imaging hardware. With Dentiray, you can tie Denticon to your hardware sensors and instantly send images to the cloud. Most of Denticon’s users opt to use Dentiray, but if you already have an imaging system that you like, you can use a bridge with Denticon. However the downside to creating a bridge with Denticon is that you won’t be able to access your images in the cloud.

Dentigram

Roughly half of Denticon’s customers opt to use Dentigram, which is a patient communications solution that offers a powerful alternative to some of the other patient communications options on the market. With Dentigram, you can improve patient retention numbers by sending automated appointment reminders, as well as recall reminders when a patient is due for a return visit. Though this is an additional module, the resulting increased patient engagement can quickly pay for itself.

Denticon Integrations

Denticon integrations help you with all parts of your practice management. Here is a full list of all software and services that Denticon integrates with.

VendorDescription
ApteryxDental Imaging Software
BirdEyeReputation Management Software
CallpopPatient Communication System
Change HealthcareClearinghouse
DemandforcePatient Communication System
DentalXchangeElectronic Claims
DigiumPhone System
DosespotE-Prescribing
EbbSecurity Software
LegworkPatient Communication System
Lighthouse 360Patient Communication System
LocalMedOnline Scheduling Software
NEAElectronic Claims
PhoneRoverPatient Communication System
PodiumReputation Management Software
RevenueWellPatient Communication System
ReviewWaveReputation Management Software
RevSpringRevenue Cycle Management
RingCentralPatient Communication System
RivewsReputation Management Software
SocialClimbReputation Management Software
SolutionreachPatient Communication System
TransworldDebt Collection Agency
TSYSClearinghouse
UpdoxPatient Communication System
WeavePatient Communication System
XbeyonDental IT Services
XDRDental Imaging Software

Denticon Alternatives and Competitors

Denticon competitors include established on-premise practice management software and more modern cloud-based solutions. The top Denticon alternatives are:

Here are in-depth comparisons of Denticon and its top competitors:

Is Denticon the Right Software For You?

Denticon is an industry leader in web-based dental practice management software. It is a mature, fully-featured product that supports all major practice workflows including scheduling, charting, and reporting. Denticon is designed to scale, making it ideal for growing practices and DSOs.

Denticon starts at around $300 per month, and is more affordable than cloud-based competitors like CareStack and Dentrix Ascend. Denticon's feature set is comparable with on-premise leaders such as Dentrix G7 and Open Dental.

If you are a dental practice that is looking for practice management software that will scale with your business, then Denticon is one of the premier solutions on the market. Register for a free demo today.

Lloyd Park

Lloyd Park is a Research Analyst at SoftwarePundit, where he conducts in-depth analyses of software markets and products. Lloyd also has experience managing the development of software platforms and is an expert in content production & media software. You can connect with Lloyd on LinkedIn.

Lloyd is an expert in several software categories including:

  • Dental software
  • Email marketing software
  • Field service management software
  • Legal software
  • Property management software