The Imaging Module is a place to scan and store most images, radiographs, forms, and letters that you would normally store in a paper chart.

When you scan or capture forms or images, they are saved as simple jpg or tif files. In addition, you can also import other file types, including Word, PDF, and Excel formats.

External Software versus Open Dental

For many years, we focused on building Program Bridges to other imaging software. We have now added enough features that you should not need any separate imaging software. You can take your radiographs directly in Open Dental. See Sensor Compatibility

Images Toolbar

Print: Opens the Select Printer window so you can print the selected image. The image will automatically be sized to fit the printed page. Not available for PDFs.

Delete: Delete the selected image.

Info: Display image information, such category, name, date, type and description. Some information can be changed. See Image Info.

Sign: Open the Signature window to attach a note to the selected image and electronically sign it. See Electronic Signatures.

Scan Document: Use the flatbed scanner of your attached device to Scan a single page document.

Scan Multi-Page Document: Use the automatic document feeder (ADF) of your attached device to scan multiple pages. Multi-page documents are saved as PDF files.

Scan Radiograph: Select when you are scanning a radiograph. The pixel windowing settings set in Imaging Setup will be used as the default. Also see Enhancing Radiograph Images.

Scan Photo: Scan a photo. Will automatically select Photos image category.

Mount / Acquire: Click to take images using an imaging device. See Select Mount and Acquire. To utilize imaging in Open Dental, first set up Imaging Devices and Mount Definitions.

Video: Click to open the Video Capture window. Use the live feed to take images and intraoral photos.

Import: Import an existing file from your computer or network. Set a default path to import images from in Imaging Module Preferences. When an image is imported, the Item Info window will pop up to enter notes and information.

• Import Automatically: This could potentially be used by some phosphor plate systems. If they allow you to designate a folder where they will drop new images, then use the same folder as the default here. Set the default path in Imaging Module Preferences. Click Start. As images are dropped in by the other software, they will be automatically imported. Once scanning is complete, click Stop.
  
• Change: Click to select a different folder.
• Go To: Click to go to the currently selected folder.
• Start: Click to start the automatic import.
• Stop: Click to stop the automatic import.
• Close: Click to close the automatic import interface.

Export: Export a file to another location on your computer or network.

• Move to Patient: Move the currently selected image or document to a different patient. The Select Patient window will open, allowing the user to select an existing patient or create a new patient to move the file to. Automatically switches to the newly selected or created patient, so the file can be moved to a different category (folder), as needed.

Copy: Copy the selected image to the clipboard. Does not work with PDFs.

Paste: Paste files or bitmaps from the clipboard into the selected mount position or image folder.

Forms: See Template Forms.

The options below only work with image files, not PDFs.

• Slider: Click and drag each edge of the slider left or right to adjust the pixel windowing values for the selected image. Windowing is useful for images like radiographs because it isolates gray levels. Changes are visible in the preview as you drag. For more details, see Enhancing Radiograph Images.
• Zoom: Zoom by dragging, using the +/- buttons, typing in the box, or using the mouse scroll wheel.
• Fit: Click to fit the image to the screen.
• 100: Click to zoom to 100%, one image pixel per screen pixel.
• Fit 1: Only available for mounts. Click to fit the selected mount image to fit the screen.
• Crop: Click to activate, then click and drag to draw a rectangle around the part of the image you want to keep. When you release the mouse button, a confirmation message will show. Click OK to remove the parts of the image outside of the drawn rectangle. This is reversible and can be reset in the Item Size window.
• Pan: Click to activate, then drag the image to reposition.
• Adjust: Only available for mounts. Once activated, drag to adjust an image slightly, or to move it to a different position in the mount.
• Size/Rotation: Click an image file or image within a mount, then click to adjust the image. See Mount Size for details.
• FlipH, -90, +90, 180: The last four buttons let you flip and rotate the image. This is for display only and does not alter the original image.
• Draw: See the Draw tool for details on drawing, adding text, and adding lines to an image.
• Unmount: Only available when viewing mounts. Click to open a section where images can be unmounted and remounted as needed. Useful for moving images around.
  • Opens an Unmounted section at the bottom of the screen.
    
  • To unmount an image, select the image from the mount and click Unmount.
  • To remount an image, select the open spot on the mount and the select the image in the Unmounted section, then click Remount.
  • To delete an image from a mount, select the image from the mount, click Unmount, then select the image again and click Delete.

Image Categories

Files are organized in tree view by categories (folders). The documents within a folder/category are based on files stored in the patient's A to Z Folder. See Definitions: Image Categories to customize folders/categories.

Collapse All: Click to collapse all folders. Use the +/- symbols on a folder to expand and collapse as needed.
Expand All: Click to expand all folders. Use the +/- symbols on a folder to expand and collapse as needed.

• An earth behind the folder icon indicates the folder is shared to Patient Portal. See Definitions, Image Categories, Show in Patient Portal.
• Right-click on an image file to print, delete, or get more information. See Image Info.
• Right-click on a mount to print, delete, or get more information. See Mount Info.
• Single click on an image file (jpg, gif) or PDF, to preview it in the window on the right. For other file types, there is no preview capability.
• Drag and drop and image to move it from one category to another.
• Double-click an item to open it in its default program. For example, a Word file (doc) would open in MS Word.
Note: Image files (e.g. jpg, gif, etc.) are already previewed in Open Dental and will not open in a default program if double-clicked. The Item Info window will open instead.

Images are sorted chronologically by the date and time created (hour/minute/seconds). To change the sort order, edit the date and/or time in the info window (see Image Info).

Images stored in the category designated as Show as Thumbnails and in Chart module will display as a thumbnail within the folder.

Viewing Images

To view multiple images at once, select the first image, drag the image to the side using the title bar, then select the next image.

To move an image to a specific spot on the screen, click Windows in the upper right corner of the image.

• This Screen: Click where on the current monitor/screen to place the image.
• Other Screen: Move the image to a specific spot on another monitor/screen.
• Actions:
  • Dock This: Dock this image to the Imaging Module.
  • Close Others: Close any other open images.
  • Show All: Open any minimized images.
• Open Windows: Displays any open images.

Moving Files into the Images Module

To move files into the Images Module, you have a number of options.

1. Scan the documents or images.
2. Import files from another location on your computer.
3. Drag and drop files from a Windows folder directly into an Images folder. This will not work if Open Dental is running as an administrator.
4. Copy/Paste an image from the clipboard. Within another program, copy the image to the clipboard (Ctrl + C or Edit, Copy). Or copy an active window to the clipboard by pressing Alt + PrtScn (Print Screen is usually at the top of the keyboard above the arrow keys). Then, in the Images module, select the category and click Paste. Pasted images will not be compressed, but generally only take up 1/4 of the space of a scanned document. See also Print Screen Tool to capture screen shots that you do not want to save with any particular patient.
   
   If you copy/paste an existing image that's already in OpenDental, the file size may get bloated, especially if it starts out as a gif. All such images get converted to jpg with zero compression, resulting in some bloat. The current recommendation for duplicating a gif is to copy it directly to the A to Z folders using Windows.Then, return to the OpenDental Images module and refresh. The new file will be picked up and attached to the patient.
5. Copy directly into the patient's folder. In Windows, simply select and copy the files, then paste the files into the patient's folder in the A to Z folders. The next time you open the Images module for the patient, the files will be automatically added to the tree view, and you can re-categorize or rename. This is useful when copying large quantities of files at once. Once recognized by Open Dental, do not rename or move the files, or Open Dental will not know where to find them.
   • Also see Placing Images and Documents here: A to Z Folder.

PDF Files

PDF files use the default app assigned to the PDF file type on the workstation. Typically this is an Adobe product.

When viewing PDF files in the Imaging Module, a Tools Panel appears on the right side. This panel can be minimized:

• For Adobe Acrobat Pro DC users, the panel retains its current state. Minimizing the panel on one file will minimize it for other files.
• For Adobe Reader users:
  1. Close all instances of Open Dental and all instances of Adobe.
  2. Open a document in Adobe Reader.
  3. Go to Edit, Preferences.
  4. Select the Documents category.
  5. Check Remember current state of Tools Panel.
  6. Go back to the document, and minimize the Tools Panel.
  7. Re-open Open Dental. PDF files will now automatically minimize the Tools Panel.