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Dentrix Ascend
What Is Dentrix Ascend?
Dentrix Ascend cloud-based practice management software offers a smarter, more natural interface that's easy to learn and master. With one-click access to patient information and customized workflows, you'll get more done in less time. Scale your business and standardize your data on your own terms. Dentrix Ascend can help you integrate workflows within and across locations, no matter how many you have, so you can leave a silo mentality behind.
Who Uses Dentrix Ascend?
DSO organizations, Solo Practices, Group Practices, Entrepreneurial Dentists,
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Dentrix Ascend
Reviews of Dentrix Ascend

Dentrix Ascend is a must buy!
Comments: Our overall experience has been extremely positive.
Pros:
The charting and insurance benefits are the best. It is so user friendly compared to other software we have used.
Cons:
Everything that I felt was missing has been added in the last year. I do think that there could be some improvements in the treatment planner.
Alternatives Considered:
Dentrix Ascend review
Comments: overall i like the product but correcting the accounting issues is something that is very frustrating and would possibly cause our practice to return to Dentrix
Pros:
like that its cloud based and always evolving with updates as users make recommendations to improve. I like that I can access it anywhere.
Cons:
I do not like the line item accounting and that credits can not be left on the ledger without affecting provider totals. A/R from previous months changes based on patient over-payments. We have all our fee schedules in and we do write offs at time of service /claim generation but there are still instances where we have over-collected and the only way to have the adjustment for the patient over-payment is to put the EOB in as insurance over-payment which is not accurate or refund the patient directly when the EOB is received, which is not practical
Dentrix Ascend Brought our office low
Comments: We have 2 offices that switched from Dentrix to Dentrix Ascend in December. We all hate it. We are moving to another program in a few weeks.
Pros:
Looks clean. User function is not great.
Cons:
So much clicking to get where you want to go. Laborious. No pretreatment estimate tracking. You can put in treatment, and send a preauthorization, but when it comes back, there's no way to communicate what the preestimate states except going to hunt for it and looking at a little note you put in yourself. Also, the power reporting is a NIGHTMARE. Overly complicated. You can't print a report. We have needed support several times and while the people I've actually gotten a hold of have been wonderful, I've waited on the phone for over 45 minutes twice before I was able to reach someone to help me. If you email them, they create a ticket. They don't tell you what to do with the ticket, but you have one. Enjoy. We went over a month until we were able to fix a problem with insurance coverage dates overlapping. We were completely locked out until I had someone remote in to my laptop at home and fix it. She did a great job, but the time it took to get the problem resolved was ridiculous.
Dentrix Ascend review
Pros:
Great for practice management and organized. Easy to use
Cons:
Nothing was wrong with using dentrix ascend
Five Stars for Ascend!
Comments: Better communication among staff and between the office and patients over all our office has become much more efficient!
Pros:
How easy the software is to learn and use. Our staff was very concerned about the transition because we had been using the other software for years and they still had so many problems using it. Ascend is user friendly it’s as easy to use as an app on your phone. I asked the team what they like most and these where their answers: 2 way texting, electronic sending for insurance, reliability, ability to access anywhere, time clock (new), how fast it runs compared to our old system and the amazing reports you can run (daily huddle)
Cons:
In the perio charting it would be awesome if there was a way that implants are marked so both charts don't have to be open at the same time.
UNHAPPY CUSTOMER
Comments: Can never get ahold of customer support to help with any of the problems.
Pros:
Nothing, there is nothing that I like about this software. I have worked in the dental field for almost 30 years and this is the worst software that I have ever used.
Cons:
Everything is terrible. There are ALWAYS glitches. Treatment plans never calculate correctly. You can never get ahold of anyone to help. It's the bottom of the barrel software for dental.
Alternatives Considered:
Buyer Beware
Comments: Poor. We are finding one shortcoming after another. Customer Support is happy to contact me.
Pros:
I like the ability to text patients and log in remotely. That's about it.
Cons:
I dislike that you are limited to the Payor ID insurance database! They do not update the database. Inability to run finance charges with statements.
Alternatives Considered:
Satisfied from the start
Comments: We have always been happy with Dentrix Ascend. Our IT needs and budget are a fraction of what they otherwise would be. We can always access and stay up to date with no additional cost or waste of time. Ascend continues to get better and better.
Pros:
Intuitive. It has eliminated wasted time and money on training.
Cons:
While being next generation technology and cloud based it has been very slow to publish APIs and become operable with so many other businesses that can enhance dental practice management.
User friendly
Pros:
What I like most about this software is that it is easy to use. It's easy to go from a patient chart to their ledger and back to the schedule. It's also easy to log in from home to view the schedule or to add patient notes remotely. Although there are some features that our staff would like to see added in regards to billing and patient ledgers, overall the pros outweigh the cons with this software.
Cons:
The inability to add additional insurance payments when patients' two insurance plans pay more than the amount billed.
Worst software I have used in 45 years!!!!!
Comments: It takes 10 x longer to do anything in the front office. You cannot change insurance companies without going through 15 - 20 minutes of navigation, There is NO WAY to put a insurance information form on with the other 5 forms for the patient to fill out their own insurance information. You have to put the insurance address and telephone number in every time you put the insurance in, it does not do it automatically. The estimates are NEVER correct. The people that work there do not have a clue what they are doing. There is NOT one thing I like about this software
Pros:
Nothing- There is Nothing I like- everything is so difficult to navigate, no one that works there knows anything about the software
Cons:
Everything! I can't think of anything I like
Alternatives Considered:
Needs better customer support
Comments: Better customer support is greatly needed.
Pros:
Being cloud based is nice. They backup your data and setup is simple.
Cons:
When there are issues, it takes hours to get through to help desk for assistance. Seems like issues happen every 5-6 weeks lately.
Gutless
Comments: Our office made the switch from Viive, which itself was a very frustrating piece of software as it would constantly drop connection to the server even after several "fixes" and technical support sessions with both Mac and Viive. I was excited for Dentrix Ascend, being a long-time Dentrix veteran, knowing the power of the Dentrix applications. However, in my experience with Dentrix Ascend so far, it is clear that Ascend is a gutless wonder, especially compared with how powerful Dentrix Proper is (and even Eaglesoft, for that matter!), and as such, is has been an utter disappointment. Full disclosure: I handle the front office/insurance/accounting end of things, so I cannot speak to the clinical end of things. My review is solely of the front office and accounting end of things. Keep in mind it may be delightful for the clinician. I am pleased with the fact that we no longer have to deal with constant server connection fails, so that is nice. But still not enough to make up for Ascend's other shortcomings. My first gripe is that once an insurance carrier is established, you cannot edit the payor ID. And once groups are established under a carrier, you cannot move the groups. This means, if a carrier is set up incorrectly (say, with payor ID 06126 that directs the clearing house to print and mail all claim) with several groups, you have to manually recreate the carrier and each group underneath, which is a cumbersome and time-consuming process. Secondly, with the procedure codes, many of them default to "mouth" for treatment area, even for common codes that virtually every insurance company requires more specific information. If the procedure code is used a single time, you lose the ability to edit even the treatment area. This was a big problem for us, as treatment plans converted over with several codes that are uneditable because they are "in use." We have had to create several "alias" codes, which the clinical side now has to remember to choose. Third, Viive allowed for payment tables under each group (similar to Dentrix Proper and Eaglesoft and several other software options), that would allow any exceptions in payment to be logged for future prediction. This is not the case in Ascend. This was an important Viive feature for us because we participate with an insurance company who calculates payment based on two fee schedules: maximum allowable per provider contract and maximum allowable according to policy contract. With Ascend, you are at the mercy of coverage percentages and cannot account for the two separate yet inseparable fee schedule. I got excited when I saw the "copay" field in the coverage table and spent a large amount of time updating this field for each group, only to find out from technical support that this is not a covered feature. So, ultimately we have had to develop external tools to help us predict patient responsibility. Dentrix Ascend has completely failed us in this area. Finally, we have hit a roadblock with NEA attachments. We are having to continue using Viive because of the inability of ledgers to be transferred over to Ascend (ledgers include open claims). To make a long story short, because we are maintaining a subscription to NEA through Viive in order to be able to keep sending attachments for unresolved claims, we are unable to send attachments through Ascend. Our only options are 1) to terminate our NEA subscription under Viive and print and mail all claims requiring attachments, 2) to manually move treatment over to Ascend and resume claim troubleshooting under Ascend, or 3) print and mail all claims from Ascend requiring attachments. We are probably going to go with option (1), but really, any option is a huge inconvenience. Bottom line, as the numbers and insurance person, I would never recommend this software in its current state. I am a huge Eaglesoft critic, but I would wholeheartedly recommend even that software over Dentrix Ascend. Ascend, you have a long way to go before you will get my vouch.
Pros:
Access from anywhere, line-item accounting, some user-defined reports, everything is backed up in the cloud. There is potential.
Cons:
Just about everything else: confusing ledger, user-unfriendly insurance setup, inability to edit procedure codes, inability to override insurance payments at a group level and on a procedure code level, NEA attachment failures.
Better than some, but needs more work
Comments: I like that updates are somewhat frequent & it seems as though the developers really are pushing to make it a great system. However, it is apparent that the developers have not spent much time behind the scenes in a dental office. Some of the updates seem incomplete and/or rushed and we end up with more problems than solutions. I am still optimistic and hope that more updates and features are coming in the very near future!
Pros:
It is nice to not have to worry about a server with a cloud based system. The imaging is impressive and easy to use. In time & with updates, Dentrix Ascend will be a great program.
Cons:
Having to refresh Ascend multiple times throughout the day is stressful. Specifically, when there are changes in the schedule, a user may not see it for 30 minutes or longer because they have not refreshed the page. A cloud based system should always be current. Patient Forms are not something we can use because they can't be customized. Unfortunately, if you choose to use a form, it must go to every patient and you must use the developers content. I really wish the Patient Communications feature were better. I miss not having a way to automatically ask patients for reviews after appointments, it was our best marketing effort & now have no way of doing it. There is no way to send out an email campaign to several patients. An API is so important and it should be a top priority. Not being able to utilize 3rd party software or even customize what we are able to use in Ascend leaves us in an uncomfortable position. There are several aspects of various items missing or incomplete that are common sense in all other practice management software.
Software has a lot of potential, but needs interface and functionality improvements
Comments: Overall this program has a lot of potential to be great, but for the cost things should be running much more efficiently than they do. The interface could use some serious re-modeling and consideration for a fast moving practice that needs to reference notes, images, chart in one place instead of clicking around constantly to get information
Pros:
Bouncing between separate offices is easy to work with, managing appointments, and using the ledger works great. Keeping track of family members, adding watched surfaces, and adding procedures is great to work with. X-ray features have improved over time
Cons:
The overall interface of the clinical notes, charting and imaging is not user friendly. I've commented countless times about referencing the clinical notes with a patient in the chair is hard to use and hard to look back on old notes clicks around and x-ing out of boxes. The old dentrix note setup below the chart was much easier to use and made it much easier to refer to the chart in front of you. The image quality on xrays are ok, dexis is better than schick. Schick images are so bad I hardly consider them diagnostic. Dentrix and Schick both point the finger at each other and Dentrix answer is to use a twain device which looks like an interface from Windows '98 and is not user friendly or conducive to a fast working office.
Extremely Satisfied!
Pros:
Having used their non-cloud based Dentrix prior to the Ascend version, it was a seemless transition. Very user friendly, even our older employees caught on quickly and adapted.
Cons:
The only con I have is the lack of some features, but they are doing a wonderful job slowly adding them to the program. I was just hoping for a time clock feature, and they debuted it last week! Now if there was a way for employees to leave notes; such as, I forgot to clock in at 7am or I didn't get a lunch today....
Not Recommended
Comments: We spend the majority of our time trying to figure out how this system works. It does not use best practices that have been established by other larger PMs such as Dentrix and Eaglesoft.
Pros:
We love the cloud based setup. Like the dash board when logging in. It is an easy layout to understand.
Cons:
Unable to run a month-end process to lock down collections and productions. This causes reports to change over time.
Dentrix Survey
Comments: Overall it was easy to learn
Pros:
It was easy to learn how to use and not having any prior training on it I liked the software.
Cons:
there are certain features I wish it had. for example to keep track of NP referrals it the listing is not in there BEFORE the patient sees our provider it will not capture that listing when its put in after the patient was seen its aggravating because some patients don't fill out their paperwork until the day of the appt and it gets so busy crazy that I forget to put in who referred them and by the end of the month if I go back and put in the referral after it wont capture it it on New Patient list and I end up having to manually do a list on my end.
Love Dentrix Ascend
Pros:
* Software updates happen automatically at night when we're out of the office do it does not interrupt our work day. * Being able to put in down grades is a huge help * Very user friendly
Cons:
* Certain things are not as customizable as we would like ie: patient forms, text message communications * Would love more options on insurance coverage * When you change an address or phone number there should be an option to apply it to everyone listed on the account. It is very time consuming to change it on every single family member, especially when there's like 8 people. * Switching primary and secondary insurance is very difficult and time consuming
Feedback
Comments: Overall we switched because we were trying to access all patients from all locations and switching to this software has allowed us to do that.
Pros:
I love that we can login with ease from anywhere, it allows us to look at charts and complete tasks from any location. I also love the dashboard, it shows what claims need to be worked on and helps keep the team on track.
Cons:
The clinical team has not been happy with the way the chart is and when you are placing the treatment and existing treatment in.
Great Patient Management Software
Comments: The software has done exactly what we need and they continually are releasing new features that make the software more reliable. I love that it is all cloud based and we don't need a local server.
Pros:
One of the most intuitive user interfaces of any dental software that I have seen. Great functionality and reporting tools.
Cons:
Like any big brand software, feature requests take quite a while to be implemented, if ever.
Mostly there
Comments: I love the portability, however, the interface with iPhone isn’t quite 100% and the chrome book interface stopped working altogether. The reports are too customizable and need to just have more basic reports to choose from rather than making us build the entire thing ourselves.
Pros:
It is great that it is cloud based and easy to access and the updates happen often to improve use.
Cons:
Because it’s cloud based, the response time can be slow. Especially the imaging. Also the reports are way too confusing
Great Product With Room to Grow
Comments: Ascend has been a great improvement to our office. It allows us to keep patient records, images, appointments, accounts, insurance tracking, etc. all in one place that is accessible even when we are not in office. We have remote employees and the ability for them to be able to work off-site while still having access to the information they need has been a huge help.
Pros:
The software has a lot of capabilities and is very useful. The fact that it's cloud based is wonderful for convenience and accessibility when we're not in the office.
Cons:
As with most newer programs, is a work in progress. It has it's limitations like any program but with that being said, they are always taking user input and continuously bringing out updates that cater the the needs of their user base and their customer service is particularly good.
Usee Friendly Software and Excellent Customer Service
Pros:
It is so easy to use. You can request features that are often considered and implemented. The ongoing updates are great. Technical support is excellent.
Cons:
The perio comparison chart is difficukt to read. The note that we set up for scheduling(i.e. provider request) does not pop up when the appointment is being made.
Alternatives Considered:
Start Up Practice
Comments: Like the automated insurance verification and ease of claims submission
Pros:
-ease of use -ease of training -integration of imaging -continuous improvement
Cons:
-does not integrate with 3rd party applications well -would like to be able to open it to one patient instead of a Home Screen first
Dentrix Ascend review
Comments: We are an older, small practice that doesn’t take insurance- all fee for service. We file for the patient but don’t know if they get paid, so there is a lot of end of month phone calling to clean up overview screen. Also the text messages should be customizable and indicate when one is sent. Overall, I am pleased with the program and the support and don’t know why there are so many negative comments. I really like being able to access from home or my cell phone.
Pros:
Cloud based. Good support. Good initial training. Great for a small fee-for-service practice that doesn’t need a bunch of bells and whistles.
Cons:
1. The monthly fee. 2. Can’t run Xray program on Mac (maybe things have changed). 3. Have to click numerous times to get to patient notes.