Adding a Satellite Office or Buying a Practice: The Orthodontic Multi-Location IT Plan

The lease for the second office is signed, and the doctor will be there on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Someone has to make the schedule, the progress photos, the scanner and the phones work in a building that is empty five days a week, and the job often lands on the owner or the office manager. That is what orthodontic satellite office IT has to get right.

If you are weighing who should build it, our dental IT support page explains how Legend works with practices. This plan gives you the vendor rules side by side in one table, a worked bandwidth example for a small satellite, a day-one checklist, three multi-location patterns and an 18-point IT addendum for buying an orthodontic practice. For the whole office beyond the satellite, start with our orthodontic practice technology guide.

Why is an orthodontic satellite different from a second dental office?

An orthodontic satellite is usually a part-time extension of one practice, not a second practice. The doctor rotates in on set days, records and imaging stay tied to the main office, scanner and aligner-portal accounts belong to doctors rather than rooms, and treatment contracts run for the length of each case. Each of those changes the IT design.

Definition. In orthodontics, a satellite office is a second location the doctor staffs on set days, often one or two a week, while records, scheduling and imaging stay tied to the main practice.

If you are planning a digital workflow for a multi-office orthodontic practice, start from where the chart and the images live, not from the number of chairs. That one decision sets the internet line, the firewall, the server and the backup scope at the satellite.

If you are adding a full second dental office rather than a part-time satellite, our plans for adding a second dental office in Dallas–Fort Worth and in Greater Houston cover the full-office version, including the database and phone-number decisions.

Next step: write down which practice software and which imaging system you run today. The next section turns that into a connection plan.

Does a satellite office need its own server? It depends on your practice software

A satellite office does not always need its own server, but it must connect the way your practice software's vendor specifies. Cloud-hosted systems need a good internet line at each office. On-premise systems keep the server at the main office and reach the satellite through Remote Desktop Services or a VPN, and each vendor says which.

The table below quotes each vendor's own published requirements, read on 26 October 2026. Where a vendor publishes no figure, the cell says "not published". Nothing here is an estimate.

Dolphin Imaging is one of the imaging platforms whose IT environment Legend supports, and our Dolphin Imaging IT support page describes that support. Two lines from page 1 of Dolphin's requirements matter for a satellite plan: "If Remote Desktop Services is needed for remote locations or thin clients, in a SBS network, a separate server is recommended," and "Dolphin software is not designed to work in a multi-domain environment." Page 2 adds a ceiling for growing groups: "Limit each single database to a maximum of 25 locations."

For sites with more than 10 simultaneous remote connections, Dolphin recommends two servers, each with 256MB RAM allocated per remote connection. That is the point where a "satellite" plan becomes a server plan.

What if the PMS is in the cloud but imaging is on a server?

Then the satellite lives under two rule sets at once. Cloud 9's requirements say it does not recommend VPN for internet connections. Dolphin's requirements say: "If you plan to capture images from the remote office, a local PC and a VPN is required." The design that follows is two separate paths: the practice software goes straight out to the internet, and only the imaging traffic travels over the VPN to the main server. Your IT provider has to design, document and test both paths, and the firewall at each end has to allow exactly that.

If you are still choosing between hosted and server-based software, our comparison of cloud or server orthodontic practice software covers that decision; this page assumes the software is already chosen.

Next step: circle your row, then size the satellite's line with the worked example below.

What must work on day one at a part-time satellite?

On the first clinic day, the doctor needs the schedule, the chart, image capture, the scanner, printing, phones and logins working from every chair, with backups and monitoring already covering the new devices. The line and the connection method are the hardest parts to fix on the day, so test those from the satellite itself before the first patient.

How to run the test before the first patient

1. 1. Pick a non-clinic day at the satellite and bring the doctor's and one assistant's own logins, not an admin account.
2. 1. Open a real chart from each chair PC and from the front desk, and time how long the schedule takes to load.
3. 1. Capture one test image with each sensor or camera, then open it from the chart at the main office as well.
4. 1. Send a test scan from the intraoral scanner and confirm it arrives in the portal.
5. 1. Print a statement and a label from the satellite, and call the satellite's number from a mobile phone.
6. 1. Unplug the main internet line for ten minutes and note what still works on the second path.
7. 1. Write down every failure with the time and the PC name, and retest each one after it is fixed.

Example: a 4-workstation satellite with one scanner

This example uses only the figures the vendors publish. Your line needs these numbers plus everything else that shares it.

The vendor minimums are small; the risk is everything else on the same line. Dolphin's own requirements warn that "A single Ring Video Camera in highest resolution can consume nearly all the upload bandwidth from a Practice without them even realizing it." Cloud 9 asks offices using VoIP to "consider setting up network-based quality of service controls" so office internet use does not affect call quality. Size the line for cameras, phones, guest Wi-Fi and updates, then reserve the vendor's figure for the practice software. Dolphin writes its remote-office figures as "MB" and "K" (for example 768K/768K); they are printed here exactly as the vendor writes them.

If the satellite's line drops on a clinic day, our guide on what to check when the office internet is down gives the order of checks.

Next step: run the checklist from the satellite, on a non-clinic day, with the doctor's own login.

What are the three multi-location patterns for an orthodontic practice?

This plan uses three patterns for an orthodontic practice with more than one office: one main office with a part-time satellite, three to five full offices under one owner, or offices joining or forming a group. The pattern decides how many databases, logins, phone queues and backup sets you run, so name yours before you buy anything.

For pattern C, standardisation, central monitoring and onboarding acquired offices are covered in our IT guide for dental groups and DSOs, and our IT support for multi-location dental groups page describes that service. This page stays with patterns A and B.

Remote front-office options to decide before opening (a checklist for you, not a service list):

• • A shared phone queue, so the main office answers the satellite's calls on closed days
• • Call routing that changes on satellite days without someone reprogramming phones each morning
• • Scheduling for both offices from one front desk, with the satellite's chairs shown as their own columns
• • Who checks patients in at the satellite when the front-desk person stays at the main office

If you are thinking about CBCT at more than one office, decide where the scans are saved and how they are backed up before the second unit is ordered.

Next step: pick your pattern and write it at the top of the plan; every quote you request should answer for that pattern.

What follows the doctor between offices: phones, scanners and records?

When the doctor rotates, some things stay with each building and some follow the person. Phone numbers and fax lines stay with the office; aligner-portal and scanner accounts, remote access and email follow the doctor. Decide each one in writing, because an account nobody owns becomes a locked-out morning.

Next step: add an "account owner" column to your plan and fill it before the satellite opens.

Buying an orthodontic practice: the IT addendum to your due-diligence checklist

Start with our dental practice acquisition IT due diligence checklist. It covers servers, backups, security, contracts, domain and phones for any dental practice. Then add these 18 orthodontic items, which come from how orthodontic practices store treatment, images and payments.

What IT should be on an orthodontic practice purchase checklist?

An orthodontic purchase checklist needs the practice software and its hosting, the image archive and records for patients in active treatment, treatment contracts and payment plans, scanner and aligner-portal accounts, server and SQL Server end dates, and how any satellite connects today. Ask the seller for each in writing before you sign.

Records retention periods are set by state rules; confirm them with your counsel and your state dental board. If you are also asking what is changing in HIPAA rules for dental offices, our summary of HIPAA Security Rule updates for dental practices tracks the proposed rule.

OrthoTrac v15.7 still lists Windows Server 2016 with SQL Server 2016 Express as a minimum, so a seller's server can meet the software's minimum and still be about to lose Microsoft updates. The dates calendar in our orthodontic practice technology guide shows what to replace first. Before any data moves, protect it with the software migration backup checklist. For item 18, our cloud or server orthodontic practice software comparison helps you decide whether to change at all.

Next step: send the 18 items to the seller with your letter of intent, and ask for answers in writing.

What to ask your IT provider about adding or buying an orthodontic office

Use these questions with any IT provider, including your current one. Ask for written answers, and ask to see the vendor document behind each one. For the general questions every dental practice should ask a provider, see our 20 questions to ask before signing with a dental IT company.

Next step: send these questions before you request quotes, so every answer covers the same scope.

Orthodontic expansions Legend has worked on

Legend built the network and installed workstations, imaging and practice management software, audio/video and surveillance for the third Luv Braces location in Hutto, Texas. The project is on our Luv Braces third location in Hutto page.

This plan comes from Ian Lynch, who has 22 years in dental IT and oversees the NOC, onsite dispatch and client technology roadmaps. The facts below are Legend Networking's own:

• • Practices: Served over 3,500 practices since 2004
• • Experience: 22+ years in dental IT (since 2004)
• • Engineering team: In-house engineers; no outsourced first-level triage
• • Monitoring and helpdesk: 24/7 monitoring, and a staffed 24/7 helpdesk at 1-800-794-1588
• • Onsite: Onsite dispatch by appointment across served dental markets; remote-first nationwide