Connecting Open Dental
If your practice runs Open Dental, SpiderLabs connects to it so the receptionist can see your open times and — once a booking test passes — write appointments straight into your schedule. This page explains the connection, what we read and write, and the gate before write mode turns on.
At a glance
- Dental-specific: this guide covers Open Dental, our deepest, production-proven integration.
- One key, one paste. We generate a practice-specific CustomerKey; you enable it in Open Dental’s API setup — about a minute, done together the first time.
- Minimum-necessary access: we read enough to schedule and write only appointments, and only in write mode.
- Reads first, writes gated: booking directly into your schedule turns on only after a create/cancel test passes.
How the connection works
SpiderLabs connects through Open Dental’s own API using a CustomerKey: a practice-specific key that authorizes us to work with your Open Dental data. We generate the key for your practice, you paste it into your Open Dental and enable it, and once your office connector confirms the link, the receptionist can look up your schedule and book into it. The connection is scoped to your practice, and you manage it from Open Dental’s API setup with our team.
Pasting your CustomerKey
This is the one step that happens inside your Open Dental software. For your first setup we do it together on a screenshare or in person — it takes a couple of minutes.
We generate your CustomerKey
We create a key specific to your practice and share it with you securely.Open Open Dental Desktop
In Open Dental, go to SetupAdvanced SetupAPI.Add and enable the key
Choose Add Key, paste the key we gave you, and confirm. The entry should then show as Enabled — the whole step takes about a minute.We verify the connection
Your office connector picks up the key within about a minute, and we confirm we can read your schedule. Once reads work, your dashboard shows Open Dental as connected.
Connection health and the eConnector
What we read and write
We keep to the minimum necessary to run your front desk. The receptionist reads enough to answer and schedule, and writes only appointments once write mode is enabled.
| Access | What | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Read | Your schedule, open times, providers, and appointment types | To offer real openings with the right provider and avoid double-booking a slot your staff already filled. |
| Read | Patient lookup (to match a caller) | To recognize an existing patient and attach the request to the right record. |
| Write | Book, cancel, and reschedule appointments (write mode only) | To manage the appointment directly in your schedule during the call. |
| Write | Register a new patient and log the call (write mode only) | To create a record for a first-time caller and keep both systems in sync with a short note. |
The write-mode gate
Reading your schedule is enabled as soon as the connection verifies. Writing appointments is not — it is gated behind a create/cancel test. Before write mode turns on for your practice, the system creates a test appointment in your schedule and cancels it, proving bookings land in the right place and can be removed cleanly. The test always uses a synthetic test patient, never a real one, and cleans up after itself.
Until write mode is on, you are in callback-first mode
Staying in control
The connection lives entirely inside your Open Dental, authorized by the CustomerKey you entered in the API setup screen. You manage or end it from that same screen with our team, and your dashboard, transcripts, and callback history stay intact independently of the live Open Dental connection.
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