Migrate from Dentrix to Mailchimp

Dentrix patient records map to Mailchimp members within a single audience. Email address is the primary identifier — patients without a valid email on file cannot become members and are flagged for manual review before migration. We also preserve each patient's original Dentrix ID in a dedicated merge field to support traceability and future delta updates.

Dentrix stores structured address components (street, city, state, ZIP) per patient. Mailchimp's ADDRESS merge field type accepts a combined string or individual field mapping — we configure per-component merge fields in Mailchimp to match Dentrix's structured format. If any address component is missing in Dentrix, we populate an empty value in the corresponding Mailchimp merge field, ensuring downstream campaigns can still reference the address without errors.

Primary phone number maps directly to Mailchimp's PHONE merge field type. Mobile and home phone distinctions in Dentrix collapse to one phone field — practices with separate mobile flags should map as a separate custom merge field. When a patient has both mobile and home numbers in Dentrix, we use the mobile number for the PHONE merge field and store the other number in a text merge field for SMS reference.

Dentrix provider records have no Mailchimp equivalent object. We extract providers as Mailchimp tags — each patient record gets tagged with their primary provider name for segmentation and campaign targeting. A patient with multiple providers gets multiple tags. If a provider name is missing in a patient record, we assign a default 'Unassigned' tag to keep the segmentation consistent.

Dentrix recall types (hygiene recall, perio maintenance, restorative follow-up) and treatment categories map to Mailchimp tags on patient members. Pre-built segments in Mailchimp can be constructed from these tags for recall campaign targeting. Patients without a defined recall type receive a generic 'General' tag to ensure every member belongs to at least one segment for campaign eligibility.

Insurance carrier name stored in Dentrix maps to a text merge field in Mailchimp. Insurance group number and subscriber ID are not migratable — those fields are not standard Mailchimp merge field types and would require custom data hosting outside Mailchimp.

Short custom fields in Dentrix (referral source, preference flags, recall frequency) map to Mailchimp text merge fields. Each custom field requires a corresponding merge field to be created in the Mailchimp audience before migration — we plan this in the pre-migration audience setup phase.

Long-text custom fields in Dentrix — clinical notes, treatment descriptions, medical history — exceed Mailchimp's 255-character merge field limit. These records cannot migrate to Mailchimp because Mailchimp is not HIPAA-compliant for PHI storage and lacks a long-text field type. We flag these fields in the pre-migration audit and exclude them from the export.

Appointment timestamps, provider associations, and treatment codes stored in Dentrix have no Mailchimp equivalent. Mailchimp campaigns are event-triggered, not appointment-history-driven — recall campaigns based on appointment data require manual Mailchimp automation builds using date-based merge fields extracted from Dentrix. This data can be retained in a separate reporting database for compliance audits.

Treatment plans, perio charts, clinical notes, and X-ray metadata are clinical records subject to HIPAA in Dentrix. Mailchimp is not a HIPAA-covered entity and cannot store clinical PHI. These records remain in Dentrix or an alternative clinical system — we explicitly exclude them from the migration scope.

Outstanding balances, payment history, and insurance claim status in Dentrix have no equivalent in Mailchimp's contact model. Billing data is excluded from the migration entirely — practices needing payment communication automation should use a dental billing platform integration instead. Such platforms include Dentrix Ledger, OpenDental Billing, or QuickBooks Online for coordinated payment outreach.

Original patient creation date from Dentrix migrates as a DATE-type merge field in Mailchimp (Patient_Created_Date__c). This preserves record history for segmentation without relying on Mailchimp's native CreatedDate, which reflects the migration import timestamp. It enables time-based campaigns such as anniversary outreach or cohort analysis by original signup period.