When you complete procedures in Dentrix, one of the behind the scenes processes that happens is that the patient’s last visit date in the Family File is updated to the date the procedure is posted. This date can tell you when you last saw a patient, and it’s used to help determine active patient numbers in the Practice Advisor and Daily Huddle reports.

But what if a patient comes in to purchase some whitening supplies or an electric toothbrush? These products may not require an appointment, but you still post them as procedures so you can add a charge to the Ledger. When you post them in the Ledger, the patient’s last visit date is also updated, which may not reflect a true office visit.

The same thing happens anytime you enter a custom in-office procedure code (such as sales tax or a missed appointment fee) in the Ledger.

In Dentrix G7, you can apply a setting to an individual procedure code so that when it is set complete in the Ledger the patient’s last visit date is not updated.

In the Office Manager, select Maintenance > Practice Setup > Procedure Code Setup, select the procedure code to apply this setting to, and click Edit. Then check the box next to Do Not Update Patient Visit Dates.

Take a few minutes to make a list of the procedure codes that should not update a patient’s last visit date, and then edit those codes. That way you can be more confident that the last visit date for each patient is accurate.