Does the electronic patient record replace the paper card?

For day-to-day work, yes in most clinics, provided it is updated at every visit. Keeping signed originals and how long records must be retained follow local regulations and clinic policy, so check both before discarding any paper.

What is the minimum to record at each visit?

What was done, on which tooth, any change in medication or health, follow-up instructions, and the next appointment if there is one. Recording these during the visit is faster and more accurate than trying to recall them at the end of the day.

Can reception see the medical history?

That depends on how permissions are set in your clinic. The practical rule is that each role sees only what its work needs, and that the restriction is enforced in the system itself, not just hidden on the screen.

Operations guide

What an electronic patient record should contain

An electronic patient record is not a digital copy of the paper card. Its value is that the dentist finds everything needed to decide safely before the session, and reception finds what concerns it without seeing what does not. This guide splits the record into its essential parts, explains what is worth recording in each, and the mistakes that turn a record into an archive nobody reads.

Published 2026-10-01·Updated 2026-10-01·7 min read

Why moving off paper is worth it

Time lost searching for paper appears in no report. Example: if finding a paper card takes two minutes and the clinic opens 30 records a day, that is a full hour daily, about 26 hours in a month of 26 working days - reception hours that could have gone to confirming appointments and following up patients.

Identity and preferred contact

The record starts with details that identify the patient without confusion: full name, phone number, date of birth, and a guardian for children. Add the contact method the patient prefers, a call or a message, because it decides whether reminders actually reach them. A wrong number or a duplicate record for the same patient is one of the things that confuses a clinic most later, so check the number at the first visit.

Medical alerts that come before any procedure

Allergies, current medication such as blood thinners, chronic conditions and anything that calls for caution before anaesthesia or an extraction must be in front of the dentist before treatment starts, not buried on a page nobody opens. Record when each was last updated and ask the patient about changes at every visit, because outdated information can be more dangerous than none.

Treatment plan and procedures in order

Dental treatment usually runs across several sessions. Record the proposed plan, then what was done at each visit on the tooth or area concerned, with follow-up instructions. That sequence lets any dentist in the clinic see where treatment stopped without asking the patient or relying on memory.

Images, X-rays, documents and lab orders

X-rays, before and after photos and signed consents should stay attached to the patient and to the visit they belong to, not in a separate folder on one computer. Lab orders need their status and cost visible in the record, so the team knows when the work arrives before booking the fitting appointment.

A financial summary without turning the record into a ledger

The record only needs to show what the patient was invoiced, what they paid and what remains. Invoice, receipt and collection detail belongs in billing. That separation keeps the clinical record from becoming a second set of accounts that disagrees with the first, and keeps the patient’s balance visible to reception at booking.

Who sees what in the electronic patient record

Not everyone in the clinic needs every part of the record: reception needs appointments, contact and the balance; the dentist needs medical history and treatment; accounts need the financial side. Give every staff member a separate account that is never shared, limit what each sees by role, and make sure a record cannot be permanently deleted by one wrong click.

Moving from paper without chaos

Do not move the whole archive at once. Start with active patients, open the electronic record from the first visit of every new patient, then add older records gradually or import them from your previous files after reviewing their shape. Train each role on the real cases they will meet: registering a new patient, updating a medication, adding an X-ray and closing a visit. In Modirify the patient record holds identity and contact details, medical alerts, the treatment plan, dental procedures, visit history, images, X-rays, documents and lab orders with their status, with a linked financial summary; each user reaches it according to their role, and eligible operations use a safe, reversible delete.