Practice by Numbers uses recall information from Open Dental to help your practice monitor your hygiene program and identify patients who are due or overdue for recurring care.

Recall information originates in Open Dental, while PbN lets your practice choose which recall types to track for KPIs and reporting.

In Open Dental, Recall tracks services patients should receive at recurring intervals.

Each patient can have one or more recall types, such as:

Each recall type can have its own Due Date. When the procedures associated with a recall type are completed, Open Dental calculates the patient's next recall due date according to the interval configured for that recall type.

This means a patient may have several different recall types and due dates at the same time.

To review a patient's recall information:

The Recall grid displays information such as the Recall Type, Due Date, Scheduled Date, Recall Status, and Recall Notes.

It's important to distinguish between these two dates:

For example, a patient's Prophy may be due on December 13 but already have an appointment scheduled for December 20. The recall is still associated with the December 13 due date, while the scheduled date shows that the patient has an upcoming appointment.

PbN syncs recall information from Open Dental and uses it to support recall-related KPIs, reports, and patient tracking.

However, not every recall type in Open Dental needs tracking in PbN.

Your practice can select which Open Dental recall types PbN should use.

To configure the recall types your practice wants to track: Settings > Practice > Recall Types

The Recall Types page displays the recall types available from your practice management system. Select the checkbox next to each recall type you want PbN to track, then click Save Changes.

Typically, practices should select the recall types that represent patients in their hygiene program, such as:

Depending on how your practice uses recall, you may also select other recall types.

PbN uses the recall types selected on this page to calculate and display recall-related KPIs.

For this reason, unused recall types should not be selected.

For example, your Open Dental database may contain recall types for Prophy, Perio, Exam, Bitewings, Pano, and FMX. If your practice only wants to monitor Prophy, Child Prophy, Perio, and Exam through PbN, select those recall types.

This ensures your recall KPIs reflect the types of recurring care your practice wants to monitor.

The basic relationship between the two systems is: Open Dental → Patient Recall Type & Due Date → PbN Recall Type Settings → PbN KPIs and Recall Tracking

Open Dental determines the patient's recall types and their associated due dates. PbN syncs that information and then uses the recall types your practice has selected under Settings > Practice > Recall Types for applicable recall tracking and KPIs.

If a patient's recall information looks incorrect in PbN, check two key areas.

Because the underlying patient recall information originates in Open Dental, make corrections to a patient's recall setup or due date in Open Dental.

Open Dental determines the patient's recall information; PbN determines which of those recall types your practice wants to track.

Keeping patient recall information accurate in Open Dental and selecting the appropriate recall types in PbN helps ensure that your recall KPIs and patient tracking accurately represent your practice's hygiene program.