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What Dental Software Should a New Dental Practice Start With

Illustration showing dental software brand logos connecting to a new dental office building representing how to choose the right practice management software from day one

The practice management software you choose when opening a dental practice determines whether you need a server, how much your IT setup costs, what your staff learns on day one, and how easy it is to grow or switch platforms later. It is the most consequential technology decision a new practice makes.

Here is how to evaluate the main options and what actually matters for a practice that is starting from scratch.

The Starting Point Most Practices Miss

Most new dental practices choose their practice management software based on what they used during residency or what their dental school taught.

That is not always the wrong choice, but it is rarely the most strategic one. Starting fresh means you can choose the platform that fits how you want to run your practice, not just the one that feels familiar.

The Main Options for New Dental Practices

Select a platform to see what it requires from an IT standpoint, what it costs, and what tradeoffs to weigh before committing.

Which platform are you evaluating?
Open Dental
Curve Dental
Dentrix
Dentrix Ascend
CareStack

What Your IT Provider Needs to Know Before You Decide

Before finalizing your software choice, confirm these three things with your IT provider. The answers affect your buildout timeline, your infrastructure cost, and whether your IT provider can actually support the platform you choose.

Question 1 What are the server requirements for this platform, and what does that add to my buildout cost?

Server-based platforms add $3,000 to $8,000 in hardware plus $1,500 to $2,500 in setup labor. Cloud platforms eliminate this but require internet redundancy infrastructure. The answer changes your IT budget before you sign any software agreement.

Question 2 Does this platform integrate with the imaging system I plan to use, and has that bridge been confirmed with both vendors?

Imaging compatibility should be confirmed before committing to either the PMS or the imaging software. A bridge that works in theory but requires workarounds in practice creates problems from opening day. Both vendors need to confirm the integration before you purchase.

Question 3 Does your IT provider have hands-on experience supporting this specific platform?

A provider who knows your software can configure the imaging bridge, troubleshoot database connection errors, and produce HIPAA documentation specific to your platform. The learning curve a general IT provider faces in a dental environment comes at your expense and on your timeline.

Not sure which dental software is right for your new practice? Find out in 15 minutes if we are the right fit.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Familiarity has value during a stressful startup period. If your team already knows a platform, training time is shorter and staff confidence is higher at opening. But familiarity should be one factor among several, not the only one. If the familiar platform requires expensive server hardware your budget cannot absorb, or creates vendor lock-in you want to avoid, the training curve on a better-fit platform may be worth it.
Yes, but it is a significant project. A full PMS migration requires data conversion, staff retraining, and a period of parallel operation or downtime. The practices that switch most smoothly are those that chose poorly at startup, recognized it within the first two years, and migrated before their patient database grew too large. Choosing the right platform at the start avoids this entirely.
Yes. Your PMS vendor must sign a Business Associate Agreement with your practice. Different platforms have different security configurations, audit logging capabilities, and data export options that affect your ability to demonstrate HIPAA compliance. Your IT provider should review the HIPAA documentation your PMS vendor provides before you go live.
Open Dental in a private cloud deployment is the most IT-friendly option for new practices. It requires no local server, gives your IT provider full visibility into the database, integrates with the widest range of imaging and communication platforms, and has the lowest ongoing licensing cost. Ekim IT Solutions is a certified Open Dental vendor partner and sets up private cloud deployments for new practices regularly.
Choosing your first dental software and not sure how that decision affects your IT setup, costs, and infrastructure from day one?

Ekim IT Solutions works exclusively with dental practices. We serve New England and New York with on-site support and startup practices nationwide with remote support. We help new practices evaluate dental software from the IT side, server requirements, hardware costs, network needs, and long-term flexibility, so you choose the platform your infrastructure can actually support.

The software you pick on day one shapes your IT costs for years. Get the IT perspective before you commit to a platform.
Get an IT take on your software options →

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