How to connect Open Dental to texting
Connecting Open Dental to Promptly takes about ten minutes and unlocks two-way patient texting, automatic appointment reminders, and recall reminders â all running off your live Open Dental schedule. Here's exactly how to do it.
Get your Open Dental API keys
In Open Dental, generate your Developer Key and Customer API Key (found under Setup â Advanced â API, or via Open Dental's API portal). These let Promptly securely read your patients and appointments. Keep them handy for the next step.
Open Promptly â Settings â Integrations
Log in to Promptly, open Settings, and choose Integrations. This is your practice-management connection hub.
Choose Open Dental and enter your keys
Click Connect, select Open Dental, and paste in your Server URL, Developer Key, and Customer Key. Your credentials are encrypted before they're stored.
Test the connection
Hit Test & Connect. Promptly verifies your keys and confirms it can reach Open Dental. If anything's off, you'll get a plain-English message telling you what to fix.
Run the initial sync
Choose Run initial sync. Promptly imports your patients, appointments, and providers, then keeps everything current automatically â syncing in the background every few minutes. No more CSV imports.
Turn on reminders and recall
Enable appointment reminders and recall/recare texts, and pick your timing. Promptly now texts patients automatically from your live Open Dental schedule, and confirmations write straight back to Open Dental. You're done. ð
What happens after you connect
- â Patients and appointments stay in sync automatically â new bookings, reschedules, and cancellations included
- â Appointment reminders send on your schedule; patients confirm with a one-letter reply
- â Recall texts go to patients who are due but haven't rebooked â skipping anyone already booked
- â Confirmations and cancellation requests write back to Open Dental â it stays your source of truth
- â Every conversation shows the patient's next appointment and recent visits
Setup questions
Is my Open Dental data safe? ïž
Yes. Your API credentials and sensitive patient details are encrypted, every sync is logged, and Promptly never changes your Open Dental schedule â it only writes back explicitly supported actions like confirmations.
Do I still need to import CSV files? ïž
No. Once Open Dental is connected, Promptly keeps your patient list current automatically, so CSV imports go away.
How often does it sync? ïž
Automatically in the background every few minutes, and you can trigger a manual sync any time from the Integrations dashboard.
Why connecting Open Dental is worth ten minutes
Promptly is business communication focused on revenue, and connecting Open Dental is what puts that revenue on autopilot for a dental practice. Before you connect, patient texting and reminders depend on lists someone has to keep updating by hand â which means they're only ever as accurate as the last export. After you connect, everything runs off your live Open Dental schedule: the patient who rescheduled this morning gets the right reminder tonight, the patient who cancelled doesn't get one at all, and the patient who's overdue for a cleaning gets a nudge to rebook. That accuracy is the difference between a reminder system your front desk trusts and one they have to double-check.
The payoff is immediate and measurable: fewer no-shows on the appointments you already have, a fuller hygiene schedule from recall, faster confirmations, and a front desk that spends less of the day on the phone. Most practices recover the entire cost of Promptly from a single rebooked hygiene patient or one recovered new-patient call â everything after that is added production.
What to expect during setup
The whole process takes about ten minutes and doesn't change how your office works day to day. You'll grab two keys from Open Dental, paste them into Promptly's Integrations screen, test the connection, and run the initial sync. From that point on, Promptly keeps your patients, appointments, and providers current in the background every few minutes â there's nothing to install on every workstation and no spreadsheet to babysit. Open Dental remains your single source of truth; Promptly only reads your data and writes back explicitly supported actions like appointment confirmations and cancellation requests.
If the connection test flags a problem, Promptly explains it in plain English â usually a mistyped key or a server URL that needs adjusting â so you can fix it without calling support. And if you don't see Integrations in your settings yet, it simply means the Practice Management Integration hasn't been switched on for your account, which we can enable for you.
Troubleshooting tips
If patients or appointments aren't appearing after the initial sync, double-check that both the Developer Key and Customer API Key were copied without extra spaces, and confirm the Server URL points to your Open Dental API endpoint. If reminders aren't going out, make sure appointment reminders are toggled on and that you've selected the timing you want â reminders only send for appointments that fall within your chosen window. You can trigger a manual sync any time from the Integrations dashboard to pull the very latest schedule immediately.
Once everything is flowing, you can move on and let Promptly handle the rest: reminders, recall, confirmations, and two-way conversations all running quietly off your live Open Dental data, turning the communication your practice already does into a reliable engine for a fuller schedule and steadier revenue.