What dental recall software does
A plain look at how a recall system differs from a normal appointment book, using two makers' own manuals.
Your appointment book is full for next week, yet half the people who should be back this year haven't called. That gap is what recall software is for.
A recall is a return visit a clinic wants a patient to make after a set time. A routine checkup and cleaning is the usual example. The appointment book only shows visits that someone has already booked. A recall system tracks the visits that should happen and haven't been booked yet.
Why a normal appointment book can't do this
A book holds dates and times. It has no idea that Mrs. Lee had her last cleaning in March and is now due. Someone would have to flip back through old pages and count months.
Recall software keeps a second record beside the book. It stores, for each patient, what kind of visit is due and when. Then it turns that record into a list the front desk can work from.
Open Dental's manual calls its Recall List the place to "send and track recall appointment reminders."1 Every active patient shows up there for the default recall types.1
How the due date appears
Staff don't have to type each due date. In Open Dental, the date comes from work already done. Recall types set a patient's recall appointments. Finish a visit with the right procedure (the manual calls these trigger procedures) and the software works out the next due date.2
If that sounds like magic, it isn't. The software takes the date of the last qualifying visit and adds a set gap. Recall intervals and due dates goes through that step by step.
What the front desk sees
Symptoms of a working system are quiet ones. A patient drops off the list after a reminder goes out, and comes back if they haven't booked. Open Dental says patients disappear from the list for a specified number of days after a reminder, then return if they haven't scheduled.1
Other makers show the same idea in different ways. In SoftDent, a patient who is late has "Recall Overdue" shown in the title bar of the patient windows.3 SoftDent also offers an instant recall feature to book a patient's next recall exam.3
What recall software is not
It isn't a clinical tool. It doesn't decide how often a person needs care. A dentist or hygienist makes that call, and the office enters it. This site covers the front-desk side only.
It also isn't the same as the reminder for a booked visit. Those two are easy to mix up, and they work differently. Recall reminders compared with appointment reminders sets them side by side.
A short picture of the loop
The diagram shows the cycle in the order most manuals describe it. Visit done, due date set, name on the list, reminder sent, next visit booked. Then it starts again.
Where to go next
If your list looks wrong, start with the interval, because a wrong gap gives wrong due dates everywhere. If the list looks right but patients aren't answering, look at how reminders are sent. Text, email, phone and mail covers the options makers describe.
Names and screens differ between products. Check your own maker's help pages for the exact wording your version uses.
Sources used
- Recall List, Open Dental Software
- Recall, Open Dental Software
- Using Instant Recall, Carestream Dental (SoftDent Help)
More recall pages
How recall intervals and due dates are set in the softwareWhy a patient shows as due too early or too late, and how recall software works out the date and who can change the interval.
Text, email, phone and mail: how recall reminders get sentWhat ways recall software can contact a patient, and what one maker's manual says about each, so you can fix a list nobody answers.
Working through an overdue recall listWhat columns a front desk sees on an overdue recall list, how staff step through it, and why a patient may be missing or stuck.