The Use of Software in Dental Practice Management: Predictable Tools to Improve Economic Performance.

Introduction: Today, through management programs, dentists have data at their disposal that can be useful for measuring and planning strategies to better manage their practice. This study aims to analyze the digital benefits and possible outcomes of using new IT solutions. Materials and Methods: First and foremost, it must not be taken for granted that all dental practices have a management program and, above all, that they correctly enter the information intended to allow for the subsequent monitoring of their center's performance. Constant monitoring is to be carried out under the logic of analyzing the two macro-areas of management control, namely effectiveness and efficiency. Results: Today, the amount of information available to dental practices is truly substantial, but it is only truly usable if it is correctly entered into a management system or other electronic support: the quality of the data is fundamental since imprecise, partial, inconstant, or uncoded data do not allow for subsequent processing and render the great compilation efforts made by the entire team useless. The first step along the path of computerizing a dental practice is to determine the objectives to be achieved. Conclusion: It is fundamental to avoid criticalities that are rarely attributable to the software itself, but to the process of change that must be implemented within the practice. Computerization is a radical change and involves an investment in terms of time and commitment on the part of the staff involved.