Migrate from The Dental System to Salesforce Sales Cloud

Patient records map directly to Salesforce Contact. The Dental System stores N insurance carriers and N referring doctors per patient — these require a custom Insurance__c object and a Patient_Referrer__junc junction object in Salesforce, not a single primary field. This structure preserves the full insurance and referral history for each patient and supports reporting across carriers and referring providers.

One The Dental System appointment record becomes one Salesforce Event. Multi-provider appointments split into separate Event records per provider. The Dental System's appointment status values map to Salesforce Event Status values via a value-mapping table during extraction. The mapping also ensures that custom status values are translated, preserving appointment context for downstream reporting.

The Dental System's treatment entries have no Salesforce standard equivalent. We create a Treatment__c custom object with fields for procedure code, description, tooth number, completion status, and provider. A custom lookup to Contact (Patient__c) links each treatment entry to the correct patient.

The Dental System's multiple insurance plans per patient require two Salesforce constructs: Primary_Insurance__c on Contact for the primary plan, and an Insurance__c custom object for secondary and tertiary plans linked via ContactId lookup. This approach lets staff view the primary carrier at a glance while keeping detailed plan records accessible for claims processing.

The Dental System's billing ledger (charges, payments, adjustments, and balance) has no Salesforce standard object. We create Billing__c with Amount__c, Payment_Date__c, Payment_Method__c, and Claim_Status__c fields, linked to Contact via Patient__c lookup. This structure preserves the full financial history and enables billing reports, collections workflows, and reconciliation against insurance payouts.

The Dental System provider and staff records map to Salesforce User objects by email or NPI match. We preserve the license number and specialty as custom fields on User. Active/inactive status is set during migration based on the source record state at cutover.

Referral sources in The Dental System (individual dentists, other practices) map to Salesforce Account records. The N:N patient-to-referrer relationship requires a custom junction object (Patient_Referrer__junc) with Contact and Account lookups rather than a single AccountId on Contact. This design supports multiple referral pathways per patient and facilitates reporting on referral source performance across the organization.

The Dental System custom fields not mapped to standard objects become Salesforce custom fields: Recall_Date__c (datetime) on Contact for follow-up scheduling, Referral_Source__c (picklist) on Contact, and Insurance_Group__c (text) on Insurance__c. These custom fields are indexed for fast retrieval, enable automated reminders via Salesforce Flow, and support segmentation of patients by referral origin and insurance grouping.

Patient notes in The Dental System migrate as Salesforce Notes or Files attached to the Contact record. Inline images are downloaded and rehosted in Salesforce Files. File size limits (25MB per file in Salesforce) are enforced during ingestion. Any attachments exceeding the size limit are split or compressed to meet Salesforce storage constraints before loading.

The Dental System user and owner IDs resolve to Salesforce Users by email match or NPI lookup. Unresolved users are flagged before migration; the practice admin either creates a Salesforce User or assigns records to a fallback owner. No record lands without an OwnerId.

ADA procedure codes stored in The Dental System treatment entries migrate as text in the ADA_Code__c field on Treatment__c. We recommend validating ADA code values against the current ADA Code on the Tooth / CDT list during the field-level diff before the full run.

Provider NPI numbers migrate as NPI__c custom fields on both Contact (for referring doctors) and User (for in-practice providers). Salesforce has no native NPI field, so a custom text field is required to preserve the identifier for insurance claim and referral integrity.

Appointment status values in The Dental System (Scheduled, Confirmed, Checked In, Completed, No Show, Cancelled) map to Salesforce Event Status values via a pre-built value-mapping table. Custom status values in The Dental System require manual mapping during the discovery phase.

Insurance plan names from The Dental System migrate as text to Plan_Name__c on the custom Insurance__c object. Group numbers migrate to Group_Number__c on the same object. These fields are indexed for reporting on insurance carrier and plan distribution. Indexing enables rapid filtering of large patient volumes and supports dashboards that visualize carrier performance and regional plan uptake.

The current patient balance from The Dental System's billing ledger migrates to Patient_Balance__c (currency) on Contact. This provides an at-a-glance financial snapshot without querying the Billing__c object, and is useful for front-desk collections workflows in Salesforce. It also enables automated reminders for outstanding balances and integrates with Salesforce reports for collections performance tracking.