SmileDesk documentation

Everything you need to run your clinic on SmileDesk — written for the person at the front desk, not for engineers.

SmileDesk is a clinic OS: one browser tab that holds your patient records, the day's chair schedule, WhatsApp confirmations, invoices, insurance settlements, and the medical-store stock. It is used by dentists across India and is built around how a small clinic actually works — from the moment the phone rings for a booking to the moment the invoice is paid.

This section explains, page by page, what each screen does, when to use it, and the small gotchas that trip people up on day one.

Quick links

• Getting started — first 30 minutes on the system.
• Patients — registering, editing, medical history, files.
• Appointments — the day board, booking, and status flow.
• Clinical records — the odontogram, per-visit notes, prescriptions.
• Billing — invoices, splits, insurance-tracked payments, credit ledger.
• WhatsApp — Pulse setup, templates, delivery status.
• Inventory — items, batches, FEFO dispensing, expiry alerts.
• Reports — the KPI dashboard, xlsx exports, recalls.
• Admin & staff — roles, permissions, insurers, procedures, audit, API keys.
• FAQ — the questions we get most often.

Some vocabulary before you start

• Tenant — your clinic. Each clinic on SmileDesk is a separate tenant with its own data and its own <yourclinic>.smiledesk.in address.
• P-code — the short id your clinic gives each patient (P0001, P0002, …). It is per-clinic, not global.
• Chair — a dental chair / operatory. Appointments are booked against a chair and a doctor.
• FDI — the international two-digit tooth numbering (11 is the upper-right central incisor, 46 is the lower-right first molar). The odontogram uses FDI.
• FEFO — First Expiry, First Out. How inventory dispenses stock across batches so the earliest-expiring stock leaves first.
• Pulse — the WhatsApp Business gateway SmileDesk sends messages through. You sign in with your own Meta Business number.
• DPDP — India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act. It governs how you handle patient data; SmileDesk is built to help you stay compliant.
• IST — Indian Standard Time (UTC+5:30). Times shown on screen are always IST.

How this documentation is laid out

Every page is structured the same way:

• What it does — one paragraph in plain English.
• When to use it — the situations that send you to that screen.
• Typical flow — a numbered list of the steps for the most common task.
• Common pitfalls — the small mistakes that cost time later.