Why am I seeing the 'bridge overlap' screen?
When opening the Imaging Bridge for a patient, Dentally performs a check to determine whether the patient at the current site has a Bridge ID assigned. This ID is essential for sending the patient’s details to your third-party imaging software. If NO Bridge ID is assigned, Dentally will assign a brand new one.
If an overlap is detected -meaning the system detects that the new Bridge ID might clash with an existing patient ID in the database- you will be prompted with the overlap screen. This screen allows you to:
Click to review the images that will open from the existing patient ID.
Assign the patient a new, unique Bridge ID to prevent incorrectly assigned images.
🚨Important: Should you choose to create a new file and therefore assign the patient a new ID, this new folder WILL NOT contain any previously captured images!
How to use the imaging bridge overlap workflow?
For Single-Site Practices
Step 1: Open the Bridge
Locate and open the patient in Dentally.
Click the Dentally Imaging Bridge icon in your Chrome extension bar.
Step 2: Detect Overlaps
If no overlap is detected, the third-party software opens normally.
If an overlap is detected, a pop-up will notify you.
You must acknowledge the overlap before proceeding.
Step 3: Verify the Patient Record
After clicking 'Continue', check whether the images in your third-party software belong to the correct patient.
DO NOT CLOSE THIS PROMPT before verifying the images.
Ensure you check the patient name assigned, not just the folder name.
🚨 Important! This involves looking at the individual images and checking the patient name assigned rather than just the folder name that the bridge has opened.
For example; In Examine pro, we can hover the mouse over the images in question to see if they are assigned to a different patient to that listed in the folder name.
Step 4: Resolving the Overlap
If the correct folder opens, click 'Yes' and proceed.
If the incorrect folder opens, return to Dentally, select 'No' in the open prompt box.
A new unique ID will be assigned to the patient.
You will receive a confirmation message.
Reopen the Software Bridge to continue imaging in a new empty folder.
You can now proceed to open the Software Bridge again and continue to acquire images with a new empty folder.
For Multi-Site Practices
This workflow applies to multi-site practices where all locations share a single imaging database.
Key differences in Multi-Site configuration
Overlap checks apply across the entire practice, not just a single site.
Each patient has only one Bridge ID across all locations.
Once a Bridge ID is assigned, additional IDs cannot be added manually unless the existing one is deleted.
How it works
When opening the Imaging Bridge, Dentally checks for potential Bridge ID overlaps across the entire practice.
If no overlap is found, the imaging software opens as usual.
If an overlap is detected, you will see a notification and must verify the images before proceeding.
If an incorrect folder opens, selecting 'No' in the prompt assigns a new unique ID for future use.
🚨 Important: Unlike single-site practices, once a Bridge ID is assigned, it applies to all sites in the practice, preventing duplicate records across locations.
How Dentally manages multiple imaging softwares
We know that some practices use multiple third-party imaging softwares, which means a single patient may have different IDs stored for different softwares.
Dentally manages this by storing multiple Bridge IDs per patient, ensuring that each software opens with the correct ID while avoiding overlaps.
How it works
When a patient’s data is converted from another system, their external IDs appear in the Bridge ID section on the Patient Details page.
These IDs remain unverified until the imaging bridge is opened for that patient.
While unverified, the system will still use these ID's to check for overlaps whenever the imaging bridge is launched.
If the ID conflicts with another patient, an overlap alert will appear, prompting verification as always.
Once verified, Dentally no longer checks for overlaps with that ID.
If needed, users can unverify a Bridge ID, which re-enables overlap checks for that ID the next time the bridge is opened.
🚨 Important: Each patient can have only one Bridge ID per software at a given site to maintain accuracy and prevent ID conflicts.
Key features for multi-software configuration
Alerts you to any overlaps at the current site.
Each patient can have one unique ID per software per site.
Can only be enabled at the time of going live with Dentally and NOT after.
Works well for practices migrating from EXact, as external links can be imported directly.
Why can I not see the imaging bridge overlap screen?
If you think you should be seeing the imaging overlap screen and you are not, then make sure you are on the latest version of the imaging bridge.
If you are unsure which version you are on, you can follow our install guide here to reinstall the latest version:
If you get stuck or need assistance please get in touch with us via support chat, we will be more than happy to help.