How a Dental Assistant Prepares a Case for the Doctor

Case preparation starts at the chair: this guide shows the assistant's steps in Cympha dental lab case management software so the doctor finds every file loaded.

The DA's job in Cympha is to land everything the doctor needs before the doctor walks in. This how-to is the sequence the DA runs through, in order, for a routine new visit.

Step 1 — Open the case

On the Cympha dashboard, click New Clinical Case.

Enter:

Patient name and date of birth
Contact info (email for sharing plans later; phone optional)
PMS ID if you cross-reference with another practice management system
Chief concern in the patient's words (from the booking notes or what they said at reception)

Click submit. The case is created with the Clinical status — the resting state for doctor-managed clinical cases — and uploads from here land on this case automatically.

Step 2 — Capture chairside photos

The fastest way to capture intraoral / extraoral photos is Upload by Phone — desktop shows a QR code, you scan with the practice phone, take your photos, hit Send. The photos land in the case file list.

The button is on the file section of the new-case page. Click it. Scan. Take photos in your usual sequence:

Smile (relaxed + posed)
Frontal retracted
Lateral right + left retracted
Upper occlusal
Lower occlusal
Specific tooth close-ups the doctor requested

Send them, then close the phone page when done.

Step 3 — Import scans and radiographs

If you have the Cympha Agent installed on the chairside computer, its file monitoring can watch your scanner / pano / CBCT export folder — new files show up in the agent's panel, ready to send to Cympha with a click.

If no Agent, drag and drop the files into the case dropzone. STL, PLY, OBJ, DICOM, JPEG, PNG, ZIP, and GVW all work.

Step 4 — Type initial notes

Add your notes to the case:

Medical history the patient mentioned at intake (medications, allergies, smoking, recent dental work)
Pain triggers / discomfort the patient reported on seating
Anything the patient asked you to flag for the doctor

This is just a scratchpad; the doctor will refine it into a structured consultation.

Step 5 — Hand off

When the photos and scans are in and the chart is annotated, message or notify the doctor that the chair is ready. The doctor opens the case and walks in.

During the doctor's exam

You may keep working alongside:

Hand the doctor instruments
Take additional photos the doctor requests (Upload by Phone again — extra photos land in the same case)
If the doctor is dictating into Clinical Notes, you may scribe — type while the doctor speaks

After the appointment

If the doctor shares a plan with the patient, the patient gets an email link. They can read and approve from the parking lot or at home. You don't need to do anything further unless the doctor flags follow-up.

What this saves

No re-typing patient demographics from scanner export to PMS to lab form. Cympha is the one place patient data lives.
No emailing photos to the doctor. They're already in the case.
No "where's that x-ray from Tuesday." Searchable by patient and date.

Tips

Use the same phone every time for Upload by Phone — having the phone routine matters.
Standardize your photo sequence. Train the team on the same shot order so doctors review consistently.
Don't worry about file naming. Cympha keeps the storage key clean; what you name the file is what you see.

Run a Consultation Start-to-Finish
Upload by Phone from a Patient's Chair
Cookbook: Two-Handed Case Creation