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NixDent Help Center

Present and sign a treatment plan

Send a treatment plan that is saved in Open Dental to the patient, let them review the costs and sign it on their phone or on an office iPad, and have the signed PDF filed back in Open Dental.

Who can do this: Owners, Office Managers, Front Desk, Back Office and Doctors.

Needs your Open Dental connection to be working. If the Tx tab says “No sync connection available”, contact NixDent.

Find the plan

Section titled “Find the plan”
  1. Open the patient’s card (from Patients, or from any patient name).
  2. Click the Tx tab. You can also open it from the ⋮ menu on a row in Patients → Treatment Plans.
  3. Plans saved in Open Dental are listed under TREATMENT PLANS, newest first, each with its date, an Active badge, the total and the number of procedures. Click View procedures to see the tooth, code, description and fee of each line.

Only plans that are saved in Open Dental are listed. If a plan you just made isn’t there, click Refresh (“Sync latest plans from Open Dental”).

Prepare and send

Section titled “Prepare and send”
  1. On the plan, click Prepare & Send. A full-screen window titled PREPARE A TREATMENT PLAN opens.
  2. Under Send to, choose Kiosk (an office iPad) or Patient.
  3. If you chose Kiosk, pick the device from the list. With no iPad connected, the window says “No kiosks connected”. See Send a treatment plan to the kiosk and Set up an iPad kiosk.
  4. If you chose Patient, set Delivery channel to Email, and check the Email address box (filled from the patient record).
  5. Under Select treatment plan, check it’s the right plan (only saved Open Dental plans are listed).
  6. Under Treatment plan columns, tick which columns the patient sees: Tooth / Surf, Code, Procedure, Fee, Est. Insurance, Patient Portion.
  7. Edit the Title (it starts as “Treatment Plan”) and the Content if you need to.
  8. Optional: if your office offers payment plans, tick Offer this patient a payment plan and enter Months, Deposit today and First payment. The patient sees a monthly figure next to the total. Nothing is charged by signing. Accepting creates a pending payment plan for you to send a card link for.
  9. Click Just Send to send and stay in the window, or Send & Close to send and close it. You can also click Print.

A message appears: Treatment plan sent. Patient will receive the plan shortly.

The insurance estimate and the patient’s share come from the figures saved in Open Dental. If a fee or insurance figure is wrong, fix it in Open Dental first, then click Refresh and send.

Track what you sent

Section titled “Track what you sent”

Plans waiting for a signature appear above the list under PENDING SIGN REQUESTS, with how they were sent (Kiosk or Email) and a status badge such as Pending. Click the X (Dismiss this request) to remove a request you no longer need.

When the patient has signed, the plan shows a View PDF button.

What the patient sees

Section titled “What the patient sees”

The link opens a page with your office name and logo.

  1. Confirm who you are. For a plan sent by email, the patient enters their date of birth (or last name if NixDent has no date of birth). A plan sent to a kiosk goes straight to the plan, because staff have already checked the patient in.
  2. Treatment Plan page: your logo (when uploaded), office name, “For: {patient name}”, the plan title, a table of procedures and fees, and your notes. Under each procedure is a one-sentence plain-language explanation. You can reword these in Settings → Practice → Practice details → What patients read on a treatment plan.
  3. What you would pay: the treatment total, an Insurance estimate (not a guarantee) when benefits were available, and Your share. If you offered a payment plan, a tick box offers it, with a plain note that nothing is charged by signing.
  4. Patient Signature: they choose Draw signature (finger or mouse) or Type signature, and tick the box agreeing to sign electronically.
  5. Accept & Sign Treatment Plan.

After signing they see Treatment Plan Accepted with their signed copy, a button to pay the balance if one is due, or a button to add their card if they chose a payment plan, and Download / Print your copy when the signed PDF is ready.

What happens after they sign

Section titled “What happens after they sign”
  • A signed PDF is made and shown on the plan under View PDF.
  • The PDF is sent to Open Dental’s Treatment Plans document folder, as long as your Open Dental connection is working.
  • If the patient has an email on file, they are emailed a copy.
  • If they accepted a payment plan, a pending payment plan is created and they are taken straight to add a card. If the card step doesn’t finish, find the plan under Payments → Payment Plans with a Pending status and click Send link on it. See Payment plans.
  • A link to pay in full is created for the patient’s share, unless they chose a payment plan.

Common problems

Section titled “Common problems”

“No treatment plans found in Open Dental.” The plan isn’t saved in Open Dental yet, or hasn’t synced. Save it there, then click Refresh on the Tx tab.

The patient says the link has gone. Dismiss the old request and send a new one. After a plan is signed, the signing link stops working and the patient sees “Already Signed”.

The patient can’t remember their date of birth. Let them try again, then call to confirm who they are. If they get it wrong too many times the link locks for a short while.

What to do next

Section titled “What to do next”
Section titled “Related pages”