The Dentrix Blog

Helping You Do More with Your Dentrix System

Updated 3/29/22

Setting up Time Blocks allows you to reserve specific times in your Appointment Book for certain types of appointments, such as appointments for new patients or appointments with high production. Once created, the Time Block appears in the Appointment Book as a colored border surrounding the designated area of blocked time and contains the name of the time block and the provider assigned to it.

To create a time block:

  1. In the Appointment Book, from the Setup menu, click Provider Setup.
  2. Select the provider for which you want to set up the time block and then click the Setup button.
  3. In the Set Time Blocks group box, click Add.
  4. Enter a Time Block Name such as New Patients or Crown/Bridge and select an outline color for the time block.
  5. Select the day(s) of the week, and starting/ending for the time block.
  6. Select an Assigned Operatory from the drop-down list.
  7. Select a Block Appointment Type to designate whether the block should be used for low, medium, high, or general production appointments.
  8. Click OK to save the time block and return to the Appointment Book.

Once created, the time blocks will appear in your Appointment Book (if they don’t, make sure you have selected the Perfect Day Scheduling button located at the top right of the Appointment Book toolbar).

Button appearance if Perfect Day Scheduling is turned off.

Button appearance if Perfect Day Scheduling is turned on.

Because time blocks are designed to save space in the Appointment Book for specific types of appointments, when you try to schedule an appointment that doesn’t match the description you’ve set up, you will see a warning message asking if you want to go ahead and schedule within the block anyway. Try using this tool to set aside time for the types of appointments you have trouble fitting into your otherwise full schedule.

For more information, read the Scheduling for the Perfect Day article in Dentrix Magazine or Setting Up Time Blocks in Dentrix Help.