Migrate from Dent-O-Soft to Mailchimp

Dent-O-Soft patient records map to Mailchimp subscribers by email address. Each patient with a valid email address becomes a subscriber in the target audience. Patients without email addresses are exported to a separate reference CSV — they cannot become Mailchimp subscribers but the data is preserved.

Dent-O-Soft contact fields (first_name, last_name, phone, email, address fields) become Mailchimp merge tags. Mailchimp limits merge field values to 255 characters; longer Dent-O-Soft text fields are truncated with a note in the migration report. Phone numbers preserve format unless Dent-O-Soft stores extensions that Mailchimp cannot store.

Dent-O-Soft date_of_birth is reformatted to MM/DD for birthday automation triggers. Year of birth is stored separately as a custom merge field if the practice wants age-based segmentation. If the practice also records the patient's birth year, FlitStack creates a separate YEAR_OF_BIRTH merge field, enabling age range filters for recall campaigns.

Insurance plan names from Dent-O-Soft become either Mailchimp tags (recommended for segmentation) or a custom merge field. Value-by-value mapping is required because insurance plan names vary widely between practices. PPO, HMO, Medicaid, and self-pay designations map to specific tag names agreed upon during planning.

Patients enrolled in Dent-O-Soft's appointment reminder system receive a 'Appointment-Reminder-OptIn' Mailchimp tag. This allows the practice to rebuild Mailchimp automation for reminders without re-collecting opt-in status. Unsubscribed patients retain their unsubscribe status and are not re-subscribed. The tag also supports segmentation for follow‑up messages after visits, and it integrates with Mailchimp's automation builder for customized reminder workflows.

Mailchimp has no native field for last visit date. This migrates as a custom text merge field (LAST_VISIT) for recall campaign segmentation. Practices can then target patients who haven't visited in 6+ months using Mailchimp's built-in date-based filtering against this field.

Treatment plans, procedure codes, clinical notes, and oral chart data have no Mailchimp equivalent — Mailchimp is an email platform, not a clinical record. These are exported as a structured JSON and PDF reference file. Staff access this via internal documentation rather than within Mailchimp.

Account balances, payment histories, insurance claims, and outstanding charges are not appropriate for an email marketing platform. These remain in Dent-O-Soft or migrate to a dedicated billing system. FlitStack exports the full billing ledger as a CSV for the practice's records.

The primary dentist or hygienist assigned to a patient maps to a Mailchimp tag (e.g., 'Provider: Dr. Smith') or a CUSTOM_PROVIDER merge field. This enables newsletters to reference the patient's care team or for the practice to segment by provider for internal communications.

Referral source codes in Dent-O-Soft (new patient, referral, marketing campaign, insurance panel) become Mailchimp tags. This preserves attribution data so the practice can report on which acquisition channels convert to active patients via Mailchimp campaign analytics. Tags can be combined with other attributes to create detailed cohort analyses and measure ROI per acquisition channel.

Dent-O-Soft stores family guarantor relationships (parents linked to children, spouses sharing an account). Mailchimp has no family/household linking mechanism. This relationship data is noted in the reference export. Families must be managed as individual subscribers in Mailchimp. If needed, practices can use shared tags or merge fields to manually associate related patients, but the platform does not enforce hierarchy.

Dent-O-Soft's do-not-contact flag maps directly to Mailchimp's unsubscribed status. Patients marked as do-not-contact in Dent-O-Soft are never imported as active subscribers — they appear in Mailchimp's suppressed audience list. This preserves compliance with patient communication preferences. The suppressed list ensures that any future re‑permission campaigns respect the original opt‑out, maintaining regulatory compliance and trust.