In the dental software market, Curve Dental offers a fully web-based solution geared towards smaller and mid-sized practices. It includes features for every aspect of your practice, from charting to patient education, clinical notes and treatment planning, dental imaging, scheduling appointments, reports, and more. No need to worry about data security, upgrades or backups, as all of that is handled through the cloud.

Because it doesn’t require a huge up-front investment, Curve Dental’s SaaS solution is affordable compared to many other options. Anywhere you have access to the Internet means you can work with your data and other practice information, including key performance metrics for the business side of your practice. The interface was designed to be clean and simple, without a lot of complex menus or toolbars. For those involved in managing the business end of the practice, Curve Dental offers a streamlined workflow in a fully HIPAA-compliant environment. There is also a robust modules for both patient education to provide them with everything they need to leave a visit equipped for success and a staff training materials library that will keep hygienists and assistant up-to-date on what they need to know. Intuitive perio and dental charting, along with patient reminders, keeps everyone on the same page about what needs to happen and when.

Pros

As one of the first comprehensive dental practice management solutions to be totally cloud-based, many users note that this is its most powerful feature. Most users do find the software very easy to use. Most users also seem to find the customer and technical support effective and rapid in solving problems.

Cons

Several users expressed dissatisfaction with the security settings. They note that sensitive personal data, such as social security numbers, should be masked but aren’t. In addition, several more customers noted that system administrators should be able to customize security settings by each individual user to control who accesses what data, including some data that should just be read-only access. There are also administrative functions (billing, modifying invoices, balance write-offs, etc.) that not everyone should be able to access. Others noted that in the scheduling, it’s far too easy to book overlapping appointments without any warnings. Greater flexibility in billing is also needed, such as selecting some treatments to not be billed to insurance (they get billed automatically) and being able to transfer/apply credits between family members who are all part of the same account. In addition, there’s no way to tell what was diagnosed when because once a treatment has been completed, the date disappears. Treatment plans also don’t account for the possibility of secondary insurance coverage. Quite a few users noted problems with the software’s x-ray image handling, though these seem to be limited to those who use Kodak sensors.

For the most part, practices using the Curve dental software solution love how easy it is to use and the fact that it’s cloud-based. Most are also satisfied with all the basic functionality, but there is a long “wish-list” for a variety of improvements to correct deficiencies.