What Is the Dentrix Ascend Integration?
Dentrix Ascend is a cloud-based dental Practice Management System (PMS) developed by Henry Schein One. Dental practices use Dentrix Ascend to manage their daily operations, including:
Scheduling appointments
Managing patient records
Recording clinical notes
Submitting insurance claims
Tracking production and collections
Practice by Numbers (PbN) works alongside Dentrix Ascend as an analytics and operations platform. While Dentrix Ascend manages the operational side of the practice, PbN helps practices analyze performance, identify opportunities, and automate communication with patients.
To provide accurate insights and automation, PbN connects directly to Dentrix Ascend through a secure integration.
How the Integration Works
Once the integration is activated, Practice by Numbers automatically connects to Dentrix Ascend and synchronizes practice data.
This connection allows PbN to:
Read practice data from Dentrix Ascend to power reports, dashboards, and automation tools
Send certain information back to Dentrix Ascend, such as communication logs and appointment confirmations
All syncing happens automatically in the background, so practices do not need to manually export or import data.
Two-Way Data Flow
The integration supports two-way data synchronization between the systems.
Data Sent From Dentrix Ascend to PbN
Dentrix Ascend provides the operational data used throughout PbN, including:
Patient records
Appointments
Treatment plans
Insurance information
Production and collections
Clinical procedures
Provider schedules
Data Sent From PbN Back to Dentrix Ascend
Certain activities performed in PbN can be recorded in Dentrix Ascend, including:
SMS messages
Emails
Phone call logs
Appointment confirmations
Patient forms
Documents uploaded to a patient record
Appointments created in PbN
New patients created in PbN
This ensures Dentrix Ascend remains the system of record for the practice.
Why the Integration Matters
The integration allows practices to use the full capabilities of Practice by Numbers while continuing to manage their operations in Dentrix Ascend.
Benefits include:
Real-time performance dashboards
Automated patient communication
Revenue opportunity tracking
Provider productivity analysis
Patient recall and reactivation tools
Accounts receivable follow-up lists
Because the integration runs automatically, reports and dashboards in PbN stay up to date with the latest practice activity.
Data Refresh Timing
After the initial connection is completed, PbN automatically refreshes data from Dentrix Ascend on a regular schedule.
Depending on the practice configuration, data can refresh every:
2 minutes
5 minutes
10 minutes
15 minutes
30 minutes
45 minutes
60 minutes
Most practices use a 15-minute or 60-minute sync interval.
What Happens After Integration
Once the integration is active:
Historical data is imported into PbN
Ongoing automatic syncing begins
All dashboards and automation tools begin using Dentrix Ascend data
From that point forward, changes made in Dentrix Ascend will appear in PbN automatically during the next sync cycle.