Switching from Dentrix to Dentrix Ascend

PickMyPMS Editorial · Last reviewed Sep 28, 2026

Quick answer

Henry Schein One owns both products, but it does not publish what it costs to move between them. There is no listed conversion fee, no stated timeline, and no public list of which records transfer from desktop Dentrix into Ascend. That gap matters more here than in most switches, since a vendor moving its own customers between its own products would be expected to have a standard process and a standard price. Get both answers in writing before you commit to a date.

What is published is the shape of both contracts. Desktop Dentrix eServices and Ascend both run on 12-month terms with automatic renewal and a 60-day written notice requirement to avoid rolling into another year. Plan your notice around whichever contract you intend to end first, with enough lead time that a slow conversion does not push you past the deadline.

What it costs to leave desktop Dentrix

Henry Schein One publishes no price list for desktop Dentrix. Third-party estimates, none of which cite a source, put a one-time software license at $5,000 to $10,000 and an ongoing support plan at $100 to $300 a month. A separate third-party listing gives a starting price near $500 a month.

The one vendor-confirmed recurring charge is eClaims, billed at a $15 monthly minimum starting in the first full month after 60 days from signing, with the per-claim rate set on your order form.

Henry Schein One does not publish an export policy for the desktop Dentrix database anywhere on its public site. The database sits on your office server, which means you control the hardware, but that is different from a documented way to pull your data into another system, including the company’s own cloud product. Ask directly what format an export would take.

There is no confirmed one-time exit fee for leaving desktop Dentrix. Your remaining cost exposure is the sunk license, which cannot be resold on its own, and any eServices contract term you have not yet given 60 days’ notice against.

What it costs to arrive at Dentrix Ascend

Ascend is sold through three unnamed-price packages: Essentials, Pro and Accelerate. Henry Schein One does not publish rates for any of them. Third-party figures put a single-user account at $4,788 a year, scaling to $9,588 a year for 10 users and $19,188 a year for 100 users on one pricing site, and $500 to $1,200 a month on another. Neither source states where its numbers come from, and neither is Henry Schein One’s own pricing.

We found no published setup or conversion fee for moving a practice’s data into Ascend, from desktop Dentrix or from any other system. This is a real gap: Henry Schein One runs both products and would be the natural party to quote a fixed migration price, and it has not done so publicly. Request a written quote and ask that it be itemized by task, not given as a single bundled number.

Essentials includes payments, claims processing, patient booking, and text and email messaging, based on Henry Schein One’s own package announcement. Pro adds Eligibility Pro insurance checks and multi-location management. Accelerate adds enterprise reporting on top of Pro. Imaging for 2D, 3D CBCT and CAD/CAM is built into Ascend at no separately stated fee, matching what desktop Dentrix already includes.

What transfers and what to ask about

Because this is a move within one vendor’s product line, it is reasonable to expect more continuity than a move to an outside system, but Henry Schein One has not published anything to confirm that. Before you sign an Ascend agreement, get written answers on:

• What the Dentrix-to-Ascend conversion costs, and whether any part of it is bundled into a first-year Ascend rate or billed separately.
• Which records convert: patient demographics, the ledger, insurance plan setup, clinical notes, perio charting and images from Dentrix Imaging.
• How long the conversion takes, and whether you need to run both systems in parallel during that window.
• Whether Eligibility Pro and the other Pro-tier features you may be counting on are active from day one, or need a separate setup step.
• What training Henry Schein One provides for staff moving from a desktop interface to a browser-based one, since insurance workflows are an area Ascend reviewers describe as slow to set up.

If any of these come back unanswered, ask for it in writing again before you sign, rather than assuming a same-vendor move will be smoother by default.

Timeline and contract timing

Both products run on the same contract structure. Desktop Dentrix eServices renew for 12-month terms at the then-current fees, and Ascend’s own terms describe the same pattern: a 12-month initial term, renewal at then-current fees, and written notice of non-renewal due at least 60 days before the term ends. Both sets of terms state that leaving early can mean paying for the remainder of the term, and that fees already paid are not refunded.

Put two dates in your calendar: the renewal date on your existing Dentrix eServices, and the date you plan to have Ascend live and verified. Give yourself more than the minimum 60 days of buffer between them, since a migration that runs long is a common way practices end up paying for an extra year of a system they meant to leave.

If you later cancel Ascend as well, its terms let you request read-only access and a SQL database copy of your data when the agreement ends. Data not requested within 90 days of that end date can be deleted, and extending read-only access past that point costs extra. Submit that request before the term ends.

A checklist before you sign

• Request a written, itemized quote for the Dentrix-to-Ascend conversion. There is no published price to check it against.
• Ask which package, Essentials, Pro or Accelerate, you need, since Eligibility Pro and multi-location management sit in Pro and above.
• Get a written list of which record types convert: ledger, insurance setup, clinical notes, perio charting and imaging.
• Confirm the desktop Dentrix eServices renewal date and send non-renewal notice at least 60 days ahead, with margin for a slower-than-expected migration.
• Confirm whether your practice runs on hardware nearing the June 30, 2026 cutoff for new Dentrix installs on Windows 10, since that changes whether staying on desktop Dentrix a while longer is even a live option.
• Ask what happens to your desktop Dentrix license once you are fully on Ascend. It cannot be resold on its own; it only transfers with a full practice sale, a transfer fee and Henry Schein One’s written permission.
• Set a reminder to request your data export in SQL format well before the 90-day post-termination window closes, if you later decide to leave Ascend as well.

For the full breakdown on both products, including ratings and what each includes, see the Dentrix profile and the Dentrix Ascend profile, or compare them directly on our Dentrix vs Dentrix Ascend page. The Find my PMS quiz can also confirm whether either product fits your specialty and size before you commit to a switch.