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Advantage Academy

PMS Integration

Adding or Syncing Patients from Your Practice Management Software (PMS)

Topic
PMS Integration
For
Front Office Team
Read Time
~4 minutes

This guide shows you how to sync patients from your practice management software (PMS) using the Smile Advantage Pro integration. You will learn how to add new patients, connect existing records, and link unlinked members. This helps maintain accurate data, reduce duplicate records, and streamline your office workflow.

What is PMS syncing?

Section titled “What is PMS syncing?”

If your office uses the PMS-connected Pro version of Smile Advantage, your dashboard can integrate directly with your practice management system (for example, Dentrix or Open Dental). This lets you:

  • Pull in existing patient records
  • Link them to Smile Advantage memberships
  • Sync updates such as name or contact info
  • Prevent duplicate data entry

How to add or sync a patient

Section titled “How to add or sync a patient”

When adding a new membership, you are prompted to search for the patient first.

  1. Click Add New Membership.
  2. Use the search bar to find the patient in your PMS (first name, last name, and so on).
  3. If the patient exists in your PMS but not yet in Smile Advantage, choose the option to link them.

Once linked, the patient’s profile pulls in their contact info, and changes in the PMS can be reflected in Smile Advantage on future syncs.

Linking unlinked patients

Section titled “Linking unlinked patients”

If a patient’s membership is not connected to their PMS record:

  1. Go to their Patient Profile.
  2. Use the Link to PMS option to find the correct match.
  3. Confirm the connection.

This avoids duplicate records and ensures visits, transactions, and membership status are tied to the correct patient.

Verifying and re-linking

Section titled “Verifying and re-linking”

Sometimes a patient was added manually but also exists in your PMS, or the PMS data changed (for example, a name spelling). To fix this, search for the member from the dashboard, open their profile, select Verify or Re-Link, and confirm or adjust the PMS match. This is especially useful during onboarding or after large data imports.

Security and sync behavior

Section titled “Security and sync behavior”

Syncing is designed to be secure and to align with HIPAA requirements:

  • Patient information is kept protected during syncing
  • Only authorized users can link or re-link records
  • Linked data supports better tracking and fewer manual entry errors

Best practices

Section titled “Best practices”
  • Link new patients before adding manual records
  • Regularly check for unlinked patients during onboarding
  • Communicate with your team if records appear duplicated
  • Only link a record when you are confident it is the right match

For help cleaning up records that already exist twice, see Managing Duplicate Members.