A walk in the park

Stuart Garton explains how moving from a completely paper-based system to Ismile practice management software was a stress-free transition.

Dentistry.co.uk: Why did you choose Ismile?

Stuart Garton: I was an associate at a practice that used a well known brand of software, and I was in the process of taking over a practice that used completely paper records. When deciding on the software I wanted to implement in the new practice, I did quite a lot of research. I went to trade shows and saw demos of a variety of software systems that were on the market.

Although I was used to using the well-known software brand, I felt it was quite dated and in comparison, Ismile seemed to have a lot of great features. It looks fresh, and there are a lot of great functions to the software itself. The dashboard is really helpful in terms of tracking UDAs for example, and it’s very easy to use.

The pricing was really good as well. It was very competitive compared to some of the others on the market. But the main thing for me was the functionality. The workings of the software are fantastic, such as the way the charting is laid out and how you insert patient notes – it’s very well done.

Dentistry.co.uk: Was it easy to install the Ismile software?

Stuart: It was really straightforward. We had an engineer that came to the practice to do some training with us, but the software was installed remotely, and that went really smoothly. In fact, if we ever have any issues, it’s sorted out remotely, which is fantastic; we don’t get disturbed and we don’t lose use of the computer, which is really helpful.

Dentistry.co.uk: How did the team find moving over to Ismile?

Stuart: We were taking over staff that weren’t used to using computers, so we needed something that was simple and straightforward to use. Everything works logically, so that appealed to us. Most of them have found it quite easy to use. It’s like anything: there’s a bit of a learning curve when you start to use something new, but I wouldn’t want to use any other software now.

Interestingly, we took over the dental practice next door, which also happened to be running Ismile. We’ve done a big database conversion so that all the patients’ information from both practices is on one database. That went really smoothly and the team were very professional. They got cracking on Friday afternoon, and we were all ready to go by Monday morning. It was really well set up.

Dentistry.co.uk: How has Ismile’s aftersales support been?

Stuart: Brilliant – very personal. It’s usually the same few people we end up speaking to, and they respond quickly. They’re aware of the fact that if computers go down in the practice it can be pretty stressful. If there are any issues they resolve them quite quickly.

Dentistry.co.uk: What’s your favourite feature of the software?

Stuart: I like the referral feature – it’s really well laid out. In the medical history part, we use a lot of the automated features where patients can digitally sign their medical history forms. That’s really useful. We’ve got rid of a lot of paper through using the software. The recall system seems to work really effectively as well.


For more information on Ismile, visit ismiledental.co.uk, or call 0845 468 1287.

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