Working in Open Dental From Outside the Office in NYC

Yes. Open Dental can be used from outside the office. The vendor's remote-access page describes three ways: remote desktop into an office machine, the mobile eServices for limited access, and a database copy carried out on a drive; a separate page adds the Middle Tier, a server program that lets a second location work against the database. Which one is right depends on who needs the charts, from where, and how often. In New York City that usually means a second location, a reviewing dentist at home, or a hygienist who covers two offices.

Last updated: October 2026

How do you reach the program from home?

The simplest path is remote desktop. The manual lists GoToMyPC, LogMeIn and Windows Remote Desktop as known options, and notes that Windows RDP has one advantage over the others: the server can handle several connections at once instead of each person taking over a single office PC.

What that needs from the server: a licensed Remote Desktop Services setup, MFA in front of it, and a firewall that never exposes RDP straight to the internet. A VPN or a gateway sits in front, and the sign-in is tied to a named person, not a shared "frontdesk" account. One side effect the vendor warns about is worth knowing: in an RDP session the connecting computer's name is what the program records in the audit trail and the update-in-progress flag, so a laptop called "DESKTOP-7X3" shows up in the practice's audit history under that name.

What about a second office?

A remote desktop session is fine for one person reading a chart. It is the wrong tool for a whole second location working all day. For that the vendor points to the Middle Tier: a server program that sits between the database and the workstations, so the workstations never connect to MySQL directly and the slow connection between offices carries one call per screen instead of dozens. The images and documents in the shared A-to-Z folder still have to get there, which the manual says to solve with file replication or a VPN so the two offices do not drift apart.

That is a project, not a ticket: a server with headroom, a site-to-site VPN between two buildings that may be on different carriers, replication for the image folder, and a test that proves the second office keeps working when the first office's internet drops. Where that server lives is the cloud or server question. It is scoped after a free assessment.

Can a phone do it?

For limited access, yes. The vendor's own apps give appointments, basic patient information, messages and e-prescribing on a phone, and the fuller tablet app adds charts, perio and images. Both depend on the eConnector service on the server being installed, running and awake, which is the same service that carries reminder texts. If the machine running it hibernates at night, the apps stop with it. Because New York requires prescriptions to be issued electronically, with a documented exception only for temporary technological or electrical failure, a dentist who needs to prescribe from outside the office needs that path tested before the night it matters.

What about taking the database home on a drive?

The manual allows it: back up to a laptop or removable drive after the last patient, work on it, and restore with the backup tool on return, because anything entered off-site does not sync back. Under New York's breach law, medical information beside a name is private information, so a lost or stolen drive with a database copy on it is a reportable breach unless the drive was encrypted. And a dentist who enters treatment on the laptop while the office keeps scheduling has two databases that disagree by Monday. If someone insists on this path, the drive is hardware-encrypted, the restore is rehearsed, and the rule is read-only use away from the office.

What breaks remote access most often?

• A Windows update that reset the firewall rule for the remote gateway after a reboot, or a database service that stopped on the server everyone connects to.
• A carrier change at the building. Many Manhattan offices are on whatever circuit the landlord's riser carries, and a new public IP breaks a VPN that was configured to the old one.
• The server set to sleep or hibernate. Remote desktop, the eConnector and the apps all go dark together.
• A shared sign-in that was disabled when someone left, taking everyone's remote access with it.
• Time zone drift in a remote session, which the vendor flags as a known source of odd appointment behaviour.

Questions practices ask

Can Open Dental be accessed remotely without a VPN?

Through a remote desktop gateway with MFA, or through the vendor's mobile apps, yes. Opening RDP directly to the internet is not one of the acceptable ways, however convenient it looks.

How many people can connect at once?

With Windows RDP on the server, several, which the manual gives as its advantage over single-PC tools. The licence count and the server's memory set the real limit.

Who sets it up?

The remote path, the gateway, the VPN and the accounts are the practice's IT side, which is this one. The program itself and its apps are the vendor's, and a problem inside them goes to the vendor with the evidence attached.