Viewing text messages

In Dentrix Ascend, you can view the history of text message conversations between your office and a patient's primary contact.

Notes:

• Dentrix Ascend sends text messages to primary contacts. Only primary contacts should reply to those text messages. If a person who is not a primary contact replies to a message, that reply is not stored in Dentrix Ascend.

• Only primary contacts should send text messages to your office. If a person who is not a primary contact sends a message, that message is not stored in Dentrix Ascend.

• Since text message conversations (threads) are linked to phone numbers, if a patient's primary contact changes, prior threads stay associated with the original primary contact, and new threads are associated with the new primary contact.

• Each location in your organization has its own mobile number for text messages.

• To view text messages, your user role must have the "Review inbox messages" security right enabled.

To view text messages

You can view text messages from the following areas of Dentrix Ascend:

• Location inbox - If the location that you are logged in to has unread messages in its inbox, a red dot with a number appears next to your user name on the User menu. The number on the dot indicates the total number of unread messages, online payments, Denti-Cal reports, and ERAs for that location.

  

  Note: The number will vary if anyone marks a message as read or unread.

  To view your location's inbox, do one of the following:

  • Click (or tap) the red dot next to your user name on the User menu.

    

  • On the User menu, click (or tap) Messages.

    

  • On the Home menu, under Location, click (or tap) Inbox.

  The Inbox page opens and displays the messages that have been sent to your location.

  

  Note: Confirmation messages do not appear in the inbox. A confirmation message is any of the following texts: 1, y, yes, confirm, confirmed, reply 1, yeah, yep, yup, 1 confirm, I confirm, yes 1, 1 yes, reply 1 confirm, Ok, Okay, Thanks, Thank you, or Thankyou.

  Do any of the following as needed:

  • To search for a message, in the Search by name, phone number, etc. box, enter all or part of the name or phone number of a primary contact or some specific message text, and then press Enter (or click, or tap, the Search for [text] option that appears below the box.

    

  • To filter the list by message status, on the View menu, select whether you want to view read messages, unread messages, or both. Select whether you want to view visible messages, hidden messages, or both. Then, click (or tap) Done.

    

  • To view the patient record of the Primary Contact, click (or tap) the corresponding name, which is a link.

    Note: The primary contact's name, birth date, and age appear for your reference.

  • The Next Appointment column displays the soonest upcoming appointment of the corresponding Primary Contact and all the patients who have that Primary Contact as their primary contact. To view the patient record of the person for whom the next appointment is scheduled, click (or tap) the corresponding name, which is a link. To view the appointment information of the next appointment, click (or tap) the date-time link of that appointment.

  • Text from the most recent reply appears in the message list on the left, but if all the text does not fit, an ellipsis appears, indicating that there is more text. To view the entire message history, including confirmation messages, click (or tap) that message.

    

    Note: The primary contact's name and mobile phone number appear for your reference.

  • If a numbered arrow symbol appears while you are viewing message history, new replies for the current conversation have been received. Scroll down to see the new replies.

    

  • If a message is Visible, to mark it as Hidden, click (or tap) the Mark as Hidden button (if a message is Unread, it is marked as Read automatically). If a message has been marked as Hidden, to mark it as Visible, click (or tap) the Mark as Visible button .

  • If a message has been marked as Read, to mark it as Unread, click (or tap) the Mark as Unread button . If a message is Unread, to mark it as Read, click (or tap) the Mark as Read button . If you click (or tap) a message in the list to view the entire message history, the message is marked as Read automatically.

    Note: An Unread message appears in a bold typface in the list.

• Patient connections - To view the history of text messages associated with a primary contact, while viewing a patient's record or the record of a patient's primary contact, from the Patient menu, click (or tap) Patient Connection to open the Patient Connection page, and then select the Text Messages tab.

  

• Patient Information ribbon - To view the history of text messages associated with a primary contact, click (or tap) the Text messages icon on a patient's or a primary contact's Patient Information ribbon.

  

  The Messages for dialog box appears.

  

• Appointment information - To view the history of text messages associated with an appointment (or all the appointments for patients with the same primary contact on a given day), click (or tap) the Text messages link on the Appointment Information panel for a patient's appointment on the schedule.

  

  The Messages for dialog box appears.

  

• Routing panel - To view the history of text messages associated with an appointment (or all the appointments for patients with the same primary contact on a given day), click (or tap) the Show messages link on a patient's appointment card on the Status Tracker tab of the routing panel.

  

  The Messages for dialog box appears.