Open Dental does not store images inside its database. Every x-ray, photo, scanned document and signed form is an ordinary file in a shared folder called the A to Z folder (often named OpenDentImages on the office server). Each patient has a subfolder inside it, grouped under the first letter of the last name. The database keeps only a small record per image: the file name, the date, the image category and the tooth numbers.
The location of that folder is set once under Setup > Data Paths, and every workstation opens images from it directly. That is why a slow or nearly full file share shows up first in the Imaging module.
Two things follow. The images are yours as plain files, so taking them with you is a copy, not an export. And a database backup on its own does not include them.
The database backup Open Dental makes does not contain the images. The A to Z folder needs its own backup, and it is usually many times larger than the database.
A second copy on the same machine does not survive a failed drive or ransomware. Keep a versioned copy somewhere else: another building, a cloud backup, or Store.
Open one patient's folder from the backup and confirm the files open. A backup nobody has restored from is a hope, not a backup.
Because the images are ordinary files, moving offices or changing software means copying the A to Z folder and the database together: the database records point at the file names. Copy both, or the new system shows the record and cannot find the picture.
For a single patient, the Imaging module can export an image to a file, and the patient's subfolder in the A to Z folder holds everything attached to that chart.
For a whole practice, copy the entire folder tree as it is. Do not rename folders or files: the database refers to them by name.
CBCT volumes usually live in the imaging software that captured them, not in Open Dental. Export the study as DICOM (a folder of slices or a zip), then send it as a PIN-locked package through Send. A 2 GB volume is too big for email and for most patient portals; Send takes files up to 10 GB and the specialist opens it in a browser viewer, no account needed.
A specialist who receives the package can save it to their own free Store, and you can keep your copy in yours, filed to the patient.
Open Dental's API tells us that an image exists: the date, the category, the tooth numbers. It does not hand over the picture itself. The file reaches us one of two ways.
Open Dental pushes each image file to our secure relay through its API's own document download, over the same eConnector connection the API already uses. Nothing is installed at the office. Recent images come first and older history fills in overnight.
The bridge is a small program on one workstation that watches the folders you pick in the dashboard, such as the CBCT export folder or the intraoral scanner's output, and uploads new files as they appear. It is optional for Open Dental practices, and it is the only way scans that never enter Open Dental reach Store on their own.
No. The database holds a record per image; the files themselves live in the A to Z folder on the office server or file share.
The API returns the image records, not the bytes. The files come through Open Dental's own document download to a secure relay, or through the imaging bridge for folders outside Open Dental. Both are part of the Open Dental integration on Practice Autopilot and above.
Not for Open Dental images: the office enables the API and Open Dental sends the files itself. The imaging bridge is a small program on one workstation, only for folders Open Dental never sees, such as a CBCT export folder.
Store keeps every image fetched from the day it is switched on, including the history the overnight pass fetches after that. Images we had already fetched before that day are not copied in automatically, and the originals stay in your A to Z folder, still yours to copy.
Whatever Open Dental filed: JPEG and PNG photos and x-rays, PDFs, and DICOM where the sensor software saved it. Store opens photos, x-rays, PDFs and DICOM in the browser and keeps the rest as files.
Yes. Store, the relay and the bridge are covered by the same Business Associate Agreement as the rest of Intake. Files are AES-256 encrypted under your own key, names and patient labels are sealed by Extra Security, and every open, download and share is logged.
Store is 10 GB free for every account. Autopilot practices connect Open Dental and the imaging bridge from the dashboard.
Open Dental is a trademark of Open Dental Software, Inc. Intake.Dental is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Open Dental Software, Inc.
On Practice Autopilot and above, every image that arrives either way is kept in Store and filed to the patient's chart, AES-256 encrypted under your own key, with names and patient labels sealed by Extra Security. Images we had already fetched before Store was switched on are not copied in automatically. Store never changes your A to Z folder; Open Dental stays the system of record and Store is the copy that outlives the server.
Where Open Dental keeps your x-rays, photos and scanned documents, how to back them up and take them with you, and how Store keeps a copy of every new image without anyone exporting anything.
