We already have great language support, and we are planning features to enable Pract-Eze Dental to be used in all countries. Of course, the time table is different for each country since some countries are easier to handle than others. Here are some of the countries that we will be able support fairly soon. These are ESTIMATES ONLY. This page will be kept current as our priorities change.
Australia
This is the easiest, because the dollar is used and insurance is not used very much. Pract-Eze Dental is already being used in Australia. The time in Australia is about 16 hours ahead of us, so it is easiest to reach us in the morning, because it will be late afternoon of the day before in our local time. For example, 8 AM Australian time might be 4 pm our time. And since we tend to be available in the evenings, you may be able to reach someone as late as 3 PM Australian time. We generally provide e-mail support to Australia because of the time difference. Full telephone support will be available eventually.
New Zealand
Pract-Eze Dental is being used in New Zealand. The time in New Zealand is about 19 hours ahead of our local time, so you should be able to reach us after about 11 AM New Zealand time. On Monday, it will be Sunday here, but you are still welcome to call.
Canada
Pract-Eze Dental is being used in Canada. We include the Canandian insurance form and some procedure codes. We currently offer support for Canada under the same terms as in the US, but the fees are lower because we cannot do e-claims. It is $99 per month for a one year contract with no up front cost. The cost includes software and support.
We are actively working on electronic claims and we estimate it will be complete on Oct 1st, 2005.
United Kingdom
Pract-Eze Dental is being used in the UK by practices that do not see a lot of NHS patients. We include NHS procedure codes, but the FP17 is not included and we can not do electronic billing to NHS. If you do need to reach us by phone, do it as late in the day as possible which is during our normal business hours. For instance, if you call us at 16:00 your time, you will reach us at about 8 am in the morning. We generally provide e-mail support to the UK because of the time difference. Full telephone support will be available eventually.
India, Nepal, and some others
Since dental fees are so much lower in developing countries, we will provide the downloadable version of the software for free. We cannot provide affordable support, but as soon as we hear of someone who is providing local support, we will gladly refer users to them.
Spanish Version
We have to translate the user manual before we can reasonably expect to support Spanish speaking countries. We will probably begin that translation process in 2006 and be ready to support Spanish speaking countries by 2007.
Belgium/Netherlands
For the Dutch speaking region of Belgium, you may contact http://www.right-cs.be/, the company providing local installation and support.
Other Languages
We will probably not actively pursue countries that do not speak English or Spanish for a number of years. The program will support other languages, but the support will probably be provided by local companies in those countries who will have more experience with translations, more contacts, and more knowledge of the local requirements.
Installing Foreign Databases
All disks that we ship are designed to automatically recognize the country and language settings of the computer the program is being installed on. The appropriate database automatically gets installed. But, if you are compiling the source code or downloading the trial version, the foreign databases are not installed because it would make the downloads too large. So, on the Downloads page, we have included the foreign databases as well as background images for any claim forms. Here are the instructions for installing them, assuming you already have the program installed and functional:
1. Rightclick on the download link and select Save Target As... Save the file to a new folder on your C drive or on your desktop, and unzip it. It will contain a database folder as well as any claim form images.
2. From the Main Menu, select File | Choose Database. Stop the service.
3. Delete the old database at C:\mysql\data\pract-ezedental\. Obviously, do not do this if there is any real patient data in the database that you need to keep. So now, you should not have a folder called pract-ezedental in C:\mysql\data\.
4. Copy the downloaded database folder into C:\mysql\data\, and rename it to pract-ezedental. So, now, if you open C:\mysql\data\pract-ezedental\, you should see about 200 files, starting with adjustment.frm, adjustment.MYD, etc.
5. Copy any claim form jpg's or gif's into C:\Pract-EzeDentalData\. So now, if you open C:\Pract-EzeDentalData\, you should see all the A-Z folders, a Sounds folder, the jpg you just added, and possibly a few other jpg's.
6. Run Pract-Eze Dental, and at the MySQL Configuration window, start the service. Click OK.