Local IT Person, To Use Or Not To Use for Dental Technology Integration

Utilizing dental technology integration within your dental practice will provide you a more streamlined daily process and a more productive practice. In my experience there are two types of dental technology installations: an installation done by a local IT person and an installation done by a specialized dental technology integrator.

At a very minimum you should at least consider using a dental technology integration company that specializes in practice management software, image management, intra oral cameras, and digital radiography, in conjunction with your local IT person.

A local IT person will, at best, be successful at doing basic configuration of windows, installing your server, and maybe even running the cabling in an aesthetically pleasing way but most local IT companys have never touched a piece of dental practice management software, image management software, intra oral cameras, or digital radiography sensors and this can be dangerous.

OK, well maybe not dangerous per se but it can certainly cause a major head ache and probably add more cost to your dental technology installation than necessary.

The problem is that practice management software and image management software are quite finicky when it comes to installation and proper settings. Firewalls need to be disabled, specific exclusions need to be set in any anti virus software, specific drivers need to be installed for digital radiography and intra oral cameras, scanners need to be integrated with practice management software, and the list goes on… Yes your local IT guy is probably capable of doing all of these tasks however more often than not they will not be familiar with any of these tasks and how they integrate with dental software.

An IT guy that’s not familiar with dental related technology and the proper ways of integration will have to research these things. Research takes time. Time costs money. And when your a dental practice that makes $500-$1000 per hour, downtime will cost you huge.

Things to consider when getting dental technology installed:

Does the technology person know….

– how to install practice management software?

– how to install image management software?

– how to configure your software to work for your practices needs?

– how to install and configure intra oral cameras to get the best and truest image quality possible?

– how to install and configure digital radiography sensors adjusting brightness/contrast, gamma settings, tube head exposure, etc to prevent burn out and to achieve the clearest radiography possible.

– how to set up custom toolbars and image filtering so that you can get the best of your images for diagnostic capabilities.

…..The List Goes On…..

Do yourself and your practice a favor by getting your dental technology installation done right the first time, hire a specialized dental technology integration company.