Open Dental vs Curve Dental

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Our analysts compared Open Dental vs Curve Dental based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Dental Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Open Dental is an open-source on-premise practice management software solution for dentistry organizations. It is designed for Windows, Linux and macOS-X devices, with some limitations on supported versions.

It contains modules for appointments, treatment plans, charting and imaging, integrated into a single digital environment with dashboards for dentists and patients. It offers free trial versions for new users and a support/training infrastructure.
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Curve Dental is a comprehensive cloud-based software designed to streamline operations within dental practices. It's particularly well-suited for dental professionals seeking an all-in-one solution to manage patient records, appointments, billing, and more. One of the key benefits of Curve Dental is its ability to offer real-time access to data from any location, enhancing the flexibility and efficiency of dental practices. Among its popular features are intuitive scheduling, electronic billing, and robust reporting tools, which collectively contribute to a smoother, more efficient administrative process. When compared to similar products in the market, users often highlight Curve Dental's user-friendly interface and exceptional customer support as distinguishing factors. Pricing for Curve Dental typically follows a subscription model, with costs varying based on the size of the practice and the specific features required, making it a scalable option for practices of different sizes.
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$179 Monthly
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$99/User, Monthly
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Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
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Mac
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Android
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Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
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On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Streamlined Scheduling: Open Dental simplifies the process of managing appointments, allowing dental practices to efficiently book and adjust patient schedules, reducing wait times and improving patient satisfaction.
  • Comprehensive Patient Records: The software offers a centralized system for storing detailed patient information, including medical history, treatment plans, and notes, ensuring that all relevant data is easily accessible to dental professionals.
  • Improved Billing Processes: Open Dental automates billing and insurance claims, helping practices to minimize errors, expedite reimbursements, and maintain a steady cash flow.
  • Enhanced Communication Tools: With built-in messaging and reminder systems, the software facilitates better communication between the dental team and patients, leading to increased engagement and adherence to treatment plans.
  • Customizable Reporting: Open Dental provides a range of customizable reports, giving practices the ability to track performance, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to improve operations and patient care.
  • Increased Data Security: The software employs robust security measures to protect sensitive patient information, ensuring compliance with regulations like HIPAA and giving both patients and providers peace of mind.
  • Scalability: Open Dental is designed to grow with your practice, offering features and modules that can be added as your needs evolve, making it a long-term solution for practices of all sizes.
  • Integration Capabilities: The software can seamlessly integrate with a variety of third-party applications and devices, including imaging software and digital X-ray systems, creating a more efficient and interconnected workflow.
  • User-Friendly Interface: With an intuitive design, Open Dental is easy to navigate, reducing the learning curve for new users and enhancing overall productivity within the dental practice.
  • Community Support: Open Dental boasts a strong community of users and developers, providing a wealth of resources, forums, and support options to help practices get the most out of the software.
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  • Streamlined Scheduling: Curve Dental simplifies the appointment booking process, allowing staff to efficiently manage schedules and reduce patient wait times.
  • Enhanced Patient Communication: The software facilitates improved communication with patients through automated reminders and confirmations, reducing no-shows and enhancing patient satisfaction.
  • Comprehensive Record Keeping: Curve Dental offers a centralized platform for storing patient records, including medical history, treatment plans, and billing information, ensuring easy access and better patient care.
  • Real-Time Data Access: Being cloud-based, it provides real-time access to patient data and practice metrics from any location, enabling informed decision-making on the go.
  • Improved Financial Management: The software includes tools for efficient billing, claims management, and financial reporting, helping practices improve cash flow and profitability.
  • Customizable Reporting: Curve Dental offers customizable reports that provide insights into practice performance, helping identify trends, areas for improvement, and opportunities for growth.
  • Enhanced Security: With robust data encryption and backup systems, Curve Dental ensures the security and confidentiality of patient information, complying with industry standards like HIPAA.
  • Seamless Integration: The software integrates seamlessly with other dental tools and technologies, facilitating a smoother workflow and reducing the need for manual data entry.
  • User-Friendly Interface: Curve Dental boasts an intuitive interface that simplifies training, reduces errors, and enhances overall staff productivity.
  • Scalability: Designed to accommodate practices of all sizes, Curve Dental can easily scale with your practice as it grows, ensuring that your software needs are always met.
  • Cloud-Based Flexibility: Being cloud-based, it eliminates the need for expensive server hardware and IT maintenance, reducing overhead costs and increasing operational efficiency.
  • Automated Updates: Curve Dental automatically updates with the latest features and security enhancements, ensuring that your practice always has access to the most advanced tools without additional costs or downtime.
  • Collaborative Care Coordination: The platform enables easy collaboration among dental professionals within a practice, improving the coordination of care and patient outcomes.
  • Environmental Sustainability: By reducing the need for paper records and physical storage, Curve Dental supports environmentally sustainable practices, aligning with the values of eco-conscious patients and practices.
  • Customer Support: Curve Dental provides comprehensive customer support, including training, troubleshooting, and advice, ensuring that practices can fully leverage the software’s capabilities.
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  • Appointments: Lets users create appointments and patient schedules, with tools to edit and modify appointments, show pop-up alerts, financials and medical notes, recall scheduling, patient communication and see production by user. 
  • Family Module: Includes tools to set up family accounts, with specified guarantors and family members, and a Super Family option for extended families. Also allows users to create family-based insurance and discount plans. 
  • Accounts: Gives users a module to create, organize and view patients’ financial and claim history, with tools to set up payment plans, installment plans, family balance aging and dues and a communications log. 
  • Treatment Plan: Allows users to create, edit, store, manage and prioritize treatment plans for patients or families. It also lets them electronically send insurance preauthorization forms. 
  • Charting: Provides a platform to enter and organize patients’ clinical info and create 3D dental charts — such as tooth, ortho and perio charts. It also lets users create and organize progress notes. 
  • Imaging: Gives users a platform to scan, store and organize most images, radiographs, forms and letters. Includes tools to scan, print, import (.doc, PDF, .xls) and acquire images from dental imaging devices. Image editing tools such as zoom, pan and crop let users modify x-rays and scans as needed. 
  • Management Module: Creates a separate area for miscellaneous management operations such as billing, deposits, inventory, accounting, email management, staff management and messaging. 
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  • Clinical Tools: Boosts patient care efficiency and increases treatment acceptance with fast two-step charting, intuitive user interfaces, personalized perio charting, image capture, editing and storage, measurement tools and a no-touch patient portal. 
  • Paperless Processing: Allows users to eliminate paperwork with customizable online dental forms, digital signatures, HIPAA compliance and ePrescribing capabilities. 
  • Practice Management: Provides an integrated platform for front office practice management tasks, including appointment scheduling, billing and payment processing, reporting, file and letter management and business intelligence modules. 
  • Patient Engagement: Optimizes patient engagement through the Curve GRO engagement platform featuring automated patient communication, customizable alerts and reminders, two-way conversational texting and patient education. 
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Product Ranking

#3

among all
Dental Software

#29

among all
Dental Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

91
92
83
83
100
100
97
92
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Dental Workflow Management
Integrations and Extensibility
Electronic Dental Records
Platform Capabilities
Mobile Capabilities
Dental Workflow Management
Patient Scheduling and Engagement
Integrations and Extensibility
Electronic Dental Records
Electronic Prescriptions

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Open Dental
Curve Dental
+ Add Product + Add Product
Dental Billing Dental Workflow Management Electronic Dental Records Electronic Prescriptions Mobile Capabilities Patient Scheduling And Engagement 83 100 97 60 91 87 83 100 92 90 82 99 0 25 50 75 100
67%
0%
33%
67%
0%
33%
100%
0%
0%
100%
0%
0%
94%
0%
6%
89%
0%
11%
20%
0%
80%
80%
0%
20%
80%
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20%
80%
0%
20%
76%
12%
12%
94%
0%
6%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

100%
0%
0%
100%
0%
0%
89%
0%
11%
89%
0%
11%

User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 156 reviews
Great User Sentiment 522 reviews
92%
of users recommend this product

Open Dental has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 92% when considering 156 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

88%
of users recommend this product

Curve Dental has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 88% when considering 522 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

4.4 (31)
4.6 (70)
4.61 (70)
4.37 (259)
4.7 (55)
4.4 (193)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Open Dental and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Mobile Capabilities and Integrations and Extensibility. Open Dental stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award
Mobile Capabilities Award
Integrations and Extensibility Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Curve Dental and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Electronic Prescriptions.

Electronic Prescriptions Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Customizable: Open Dental offers a high degree of customization to fit the specific workflows and preferences of different dental practices. This includes options for charting, treatment planning, billing, and reporting.
Integrated Features: The software includes a wide range of features, such as appointment scheduling, patient management, clinical charting, imaging, billing, and reporting, all integrated into one platform. This streamlines operations and reduces the need for multiple software programs.
Cost-Effective: Open Dental is known for its affordability, especially when compared to other dental practice management software options. It offers a one-time purchase fee rather than a subscription model, making it a cost-effective solution for dental practices.
Open-Source: As open-source software, Open Dental allows for greater transparency and flexibility. Users can access and modify the source code, enabling them to customize the software to their specific needs and integrate it with other systems.
Community Support: Open Dental has a large and active user community that provides support, shares knowledge, and contributes to the software's development. This community-driven approach ensures that the software remains relevant and responsive to the needs of dental professionals.
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Cloud-Based Software: Curve Dental is entirely cloud-based, eliminating the need for physical servers and offering accessibility from any location with an internet connection. This feature provides flexibility for dental practices with multiple locations or remote workers.
User-Friendly Interface: The software is praised for its intuitive design and ease of use, allowing dental professionals to navigate the system efficiently and find the information they need quickly. This user-friendliness reduces the learning curve for new staff members and improves overall productivity.
Comprehensive Features: Curve Dental offers a wide range of features to manage various aspects of a dental practice, including patient scheduling, charting, billing, insurance claims, and reporting. The comprehensiveness of the software eliminates the need for multiple disparate systems, streamlining operations and improving data consistency.
Integrations: Curve Dental integrates with various third-party applications and services commonly used in dental practices, such as imaging software, payment processors, and marketing tools. These integrations enhance the functionality of the software and improve workflow efficiency by eliminating the need for manual data entry and switching between different systems.
Customer Support: Users frequently commend Curve Dental's customer support team for their responsiveness, helpfulness, and expertise. The availability of reliable support ensures that dental practices can quickly resolve any issues or questions they may encounter, minimizing downtime and ensuring smooth operations.
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Steep Learning Curve: The software's interface can feel clunky and outdated, leading to a frustrating learning experience for new users. The sheer number of features and options can be overwhelming, and finding specific functions may require extensive exploration or reliance on tutorials.
Support Challenges: Getting timely and effective support can be difficult. Users have reported long wait times for responses, and the quality of assistance can vary depending on the support representative's expertise. This can be particularly frustrating when dealing with urgent issues that impact patient care or billing.
Customization Limitations: While Open Dental offers some customization options, it may not be as flexible as some other dental software solutions. This can be a drawback for practices with unique workflows or specific requirements that are not easily accommodated by the software's standard features.
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Steep Learning Curve: Users transitioning from other practice management software may find Curve Hero's interface and workflows to be quite different, requiring additional time and effort to become proficient.
Limited Third-Party Integrations: Curve Hero's compatibility with other dental software and tools is not as extensive as some competing platforms, potentially hindering seamless data exchange and workflow optimization.
Mobile App Functionality: The mobile app's features and user experience may not fully meet the expectations of some users, particularly those who rely heavily on mobile devices for practice management tasks.
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Over the past year, Open Dental has emerged as a robust contender in the dental management software arena, praised for its comprehensive feature set and customization capabilities. Users have consistently highlighted its user-friendly interface, which significantly reduces the learning curve for new staff members, and its ability to streamline dental practice operations, from appointment scheduling to billing and patient records management. A standout strength is its open-source nature, allowing for extensive customization to fit the unique needs of each dental practice. This flexibility sets it apart from competitors like Dentrix and Eaglesoft, which, while powerful, offer less room for personalization. However, some users have pointed out weaknesses, including occasional glitches and the need for better customer support responsiveness. Despite these issues, the software's affordability compared to similar products is often cited as a major advantage, offering a high return on investment for practices looking to optimize their operations without breaking the bank. The integration capabilities with various third-party applications and services are also a significant differentiator, enabling practices to extend functionality and streamline workflows further. Given its strengths and weaknesses, Open Dental is most suited for dental practices that prioritize flexibility, customization, and comprehensive functionality at a competitive price point. Its open-source nature is particularly appealing for practices with specific operational needs or those looking to integrate with specialized tools and services. While the occasional technical hiccup may be a drawback, the overall value and adaptability of Open Dental make it an excellent choice for practices aiming to enhance efficiency and patient care without significant investment in more rigid or expensive systems.

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Over the past year, Curve Dental has emerged as a noteworthy contender in the dental software arena, praised for its cloud-based platform that facilitates a range of dental management tasks. Users have highlighted its intuitive interface and comprehensive features, including appointment scheduling, billing, and patient communication, as key strengths. The software's cloud-based nature means that dental practices can access patient data securely from anywhere, a significant advantage in today's mobile and fast-paced world. This accessibility sets Curve Dental apart from some traditional, server-based competitors, offering a level of flexibility and disaster recovery that is increasingly important. However, some users have pointed out weaknesses, such as occasional slow response times during peak usage and a learning curve for new users unfamiliar with cloud-based applications. Despite these concerns, the overall sentiment remains positive, with many appreciating the software's regular updates and responsive customer support team. A unique differentiator of Curve Dental is its focus on user experience and continuous improvement, based on user feedback, which is not always a priority for similar products. Curve Dental is most suited for dental practices that prioritize flexibility, data accessibility, and a comprehensive suite of features to manage their operations. Its cloud-based platform is particularly beneficial for practices with multiple locations or those looking to scale, as it simplifies data management and ensures consistency across the board. The software's user-friendly design and robust support make it a solid choice for practices of all sizes, especially those keen on leveraging technology to enhance efficiency and patient care.

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Screenshots

Top Alternatives in Dental Software


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