Dentrix Continuing Care: Setup & Reports (Full Tutorial)

Why Continuing Care Matters in Dentrix

Continuing Care is what Dentrix uses to track when patients are due (or overdue) for recurring services like exams, cleanings, bitewings, FMX, and perio maintenance.

When it’s set up and used correctly, Continuing Care allows you to:

• See at a glance what a patient is due for

• Auto-update recall dates when procedures are completed

• Run reports to find overdue patients

• Schedule future appointments accurately and efficiently

When it’s not set up correctly, you’ll see:

• Incorrect due dates

• Recall not updating automatically

• Confusing popups when scheduling

• Messy or unreliable reports

Step 1: Set Up Continuing Care in Dentrix

To set up Continuing Care, you’ll start in the Office Manager:

Office Manager → Maintenance → Practice Setup → Continuing Care → Continuing Care Setup

This is where you create the Continuing Care types your office uses. Keep this simple and clean. Most offices only need a few core types, such as:

• Exam

• Bitewings

• FMX

• Prophy or Perio Maintenance

For each Continuing Care type, you’ll:

• Enter a name and description

• Set the interval (for example, 6 months or 1 year)

• Choose whether to add one day to the interval

• Set a default provider or time (optional)

• Assign a display color

Once saved, these types are available to attach to patients.

Step 2: Attach Continuing Care to Patients

Continuing Care must be attached at the patient level for Dentrix to track anything accurately.

From the Family File, you’ll see the Continuing Care block. Double-click into it to open the patient’s Continuing Care window.

Here’s what matters most:

• Select the appropriate Continuing Care types

• Set the correct due date (this is the most important step)

• Optionally enter the prior treatment date

Once attached, you can quickly see:

• What the patient is due for

• When they’re due

• Which items are overdue (shown in red)

This makes chart prep and scheduling conversations much easier.

Step 3: Attach Continuing Care to Appointments (Critical Step)

For Continuing Care to auto-update, it must be attached to the appointment — not just the patient.

When creating an appointment:

• Add the procedure codes as usual

• Confirm that the Continuing Care box on the appointment auto-populates

• Make sure “Use reason to autoupdate CC” is checked

This step is often missed and is one of the biggest reasons Continuing Care doesn’t update properly.

Dentrix may also display pop-up alerts if you’re scheduling something earlier than it’s due. These alerts are helpful — they’re tied directly to Continuing Care, so it’s worth slowing down and actually reading them instead of clicking through.

Step 4: Completing Appointments & Auto-Scheduling the Next Visit

When you set an appointment complete and the procedures are attached to Continuing Care, Dentrix will ask if you want to create a new Continuing Care appointment.

If you click yes:

• Dentrix auto-builds the next visit based on intervals

• Only procedures that are due at that interval are included

• You can use the Pinboard to schedule at the correct future date

This is one of the biggest time-savers when Continuing Care is working correctly.

Step 5: Keep Continuing Care Clean (Best Practices)

Less is more when it comes to Continuing Care types.

Instead of creating separate types for:

• FMX vs pano

• 4 BW vs vertical BW vs 2 BW

You can use Auto Continuing Care mapping so different procedure codes update the same Continuing Care type.

This keeps:

• The patient view clean

• Important information visible at a glance

• Reports easier to read and manage

Step 6: Use Auto Continuing Care Mapping (Procedure Code Setup)

To do this, go to:

Office Manager → Maintenance → Practice Setup → Procedure Code Setup

Edit a procedure code and look for Auto Continuing Care.

Examples:

• Set pano codes to auto-update FMX

• Set vertical bitewings or 2 BW to auto-update bitewings

This allows Dentrix to track when patients are due without needing to track which specific imaging was taken.

Step 7: Run Continuing Care Reports

Continuing Care reports are accessed from the Appointment Book using the Continuing Care icon.

From here, you can:

• View patients who are overdue

• See who is due soon

• Filter by Continuing Care type (like perio maintenance)

• Find patients without scheduled appointments

These reports are incredibly helpful for hygiene coordinators and front office teams making recall calls.

Step 8: Customize Views for Your Office

You can create custom Continuing Care views based on what your office needs.

Examples:

• Patients overdue for perio maintenance with no appointment

• Patients overdue for more than two years

• Patients due in the next 3 months

Custom views allow each team member to work more efficiently and focus on what matters most.

Bonus: Identifying Gaps with AI Chart Audits

If you want an easier way to identify gaps in Continuing Care and documentation, MaxAssist can help.

MaxAssist is an AI-powered chart audit tool that reviews charts and flags things like missing or overdue Continuing Care, perio gaps, and documentation issues.

Get a free AI chart audit and demo here: https://maxassist.com/book-a-demo-jaime/

Final Thoughts

Continuing Care in Dentrix can get messy quickly if it’s not monitored — but when it’s set up correctly, it becomes one of the most powerful tools in your system.

It helps you:

• Stay organized

• Schedule accurately

• Run meaningful reports

• Keep patients on track with care

If you found this helpful, be sure to watch the full video walkthrough and subscribe for more Dentrix and dental tech tutorials. I post new videos weekly.