Scans

Every scan your connected scanners send is copied into the practice's encrypted clinical storage and backed up, whether or not it is filed yet. A scan is filed onto its patient by itself when the scanner sent the patient's full name and date of birth and exactly one patient has both; every other scan waits for a person on the Scans page.

The Scans page

Scans in the clinical sidebar (/pms/scans) lists every scan, newest first. Everyone who can see patient documents opens it: owners, managers, agency staff, the front desk, dentists, hygienists and nurses. Choose a view:

• All — every scan, with where it stands;
• To file — the scans waiting for a person to file them;
• Needs attention — the scans whose import or filing stopped, waiting for Retry.

Each row shows when the patient was scanned, the scan's name and scanner brand, the name and date of birth the scanner sent, how many files it has and its status:

Load more carries on until the list is done. While a scan is importing or filing, the page reads it again by itself; Refresh reads the list again at once.

Open a scan

Click Open on a row. The panel shows what the scanner sent — the name, date of birth and record number — when the patient was scanned, when it arrived, why it was not filed by itself, and its files. Each file says what it is to a lab (Upper jaw, Lower jaw, Bite or Other) and its size, and Download opens it.

File it onto a patient

The scan is copied into the patient's record — it shows under Images — and the status reads Filing, then Filed. Filing onto a patient who was merged into another record, or who is being erased, is refused.

Discard it

Discard asks for a reason. The name the scanner sent and the scan's label are removed, and its stored files are deleted unless a legal hold keeps them (see Clinical storage). A scan already filed is never discarded: move it instead. While a file is half imported, Retry it first, then discard it.

Retry it

Retry reads the scan again from the scanner company, then starts its import or filing again at once. The panel says why it stopped:

• a file is larger than Smileline can store (2 GB);
• the import stopped making progress;
• the scanner account was disconnected before its files were copied;
• the scanner no longer shows the scan or one of its files;
• the patient was merged or erased while the scan was being filed;
• scanners are not offered in the practice's country.

A scan the scanner company no longer shows lands in Needs attention rather than disappearing, and any files already copied stay in Smileline. Discard it if it is not wanted.

When a scan changes at the scanner

If a scan is uploaded again at the scanner company — a file rescanned or replaced — the new version arrives as a new file of the same scan. The copies Smileline already holds are kept as they are. A scan waiting to be filed waits again until the new file is copied; a filed scan files the new file onto the same patient.

Move it to another patient

On a filed scan, Move to another patient asks for the right patient and a reason. Each of its files is marked entered in error on the wrong record, with the reason, and copied to the right one. Click Move scan twice to confirm.

If the move cannot finish — someone else is moving or updating the same scan, the scan changed while it was being moved, or some files were not moved yet — the dialog says so. Nothing is lost: click Retry to finish the move.

On the patient's record

On the patient's Chart, the Images tab lists the scans filed on the patient under Scans, newest first: one card per scan with its scanner, the day it was taken and its files. Click a file to download it. Scans whose files are meshes do not appear among the pictures below; a scanner's photos do.

Look at a scan in 3D

View in 3D — on a card, or in a scan's panel — draws the scan in your browser. Drag to turn it, scroll to zoom, and right-drag to move it. From the keyboard, click or tab to the view: the arrow keys turn it, + and − zoom, and 0 puts it back. The buttons under the view do the same: Turn left, Turn right, Zoom out, Zoom in and Reset. The upper and lower jaws show first; tick a bite scan or another part to add it. ZIP and 7z files from the scanner are unpacked in the browser: the stored files are never changed.

A scan too large for a browser tab — its files, what they unpack to and the 3D model they make, about 1 GB in all — is not drawn: its files are offered to download instead, to open in your scanner's or lab's software. A scan saved as OBJ makes a much larger model than its file size suggests, so it reaches that limit sooner.

Downloads open in a new tab. If your browser blocks it, Smileline says so: allow pop-ups for Smileline and click again.

Send scans to a lab

When you send a new order to a connected lab, Add scans in the order panel lists the patient's filed scans:

A file is sent to the lab once, whichever order it is for. If the lab is busy or cannot be reached, the file waits and is tried again by itself. If the lab refuses it, it shows Not sent with the reason, and Retry sends it again.