Modento vs Lighthouse 360 for Dental Practices in 2027

Pick a patient-engagement layer, and confirm what Modento is now

TL;DR: Decide the category before the vendor. Both products are sold for patient messaging and recall, and both have to read from the practice management system you already run, so the first question is which one connects to your system and how. Neither vendor publishes a price on its own site, so this comparison rests on features, integrations and ownership.

Dental Intelligence bought Modento in March 2021 according to Mercom Capital (2021). The buyer said it would combine its analytics and online scheduling tools with Modento's engagement and communication features, and the deal value was not disclosed.

Plainly stated: Modento no longer appears to be sold as its own brand. The modento.com and modento.io addresses now forward to Dental Intelligence's site. Its Engagement page never uses the name Modento, but its login section points to an office.modento.io address for Engagement and Full Bundle users. Our reading is that Modento has been folded into Dental Intelligence's Engagement offer, but neither vendor has said so on a public page we could open, so confirm the current name, scope and renewal terms in writing before going further.

Lighthouse 360 has not been renamed or merged. Henry Schein One acquired it in 2019, and its own site describes it as a Henry Schein One brand. It is sold as patient-communication and recall software that sits on top of your practice management system.

The real choice is therefore Dental Intelligence's engagement bundle, which adds phone, AI reception and analytics on top of your software, or Lighthouse 360's patient-communication and recall product, which sits on top of your practice system, centers on recall, reactivation and reviews, and publishes a longer list of supported systems.

Key Takeaways

• Modento no longer appears as a standalone brand. Treat it as Dental Intelligence's Engagement offer until the vendor confirms the product name and scope in writing.

• Lighthouse 360 publishes a longer list of supported practice systems than Dental Intelligence's Engagement page, so check your exact system and version against both lists first.

• Neither vendor publishes a price, so every cost comparison starts with a written quote.

• Dental Intelligence's public pages describe the broader bundle: texting, forms, recalls, a patient app, phone, an AI receptionist and analytics.

• Lighthouse 360's public pages emphasize recall, reactivation and online reviews, and we found no AI receptionist, analytics or patient app described on them.

• An automation layer can add approvals and routing, but it needs confirmed data access, consent fields and a named owner before it runs.

Who this is for

This guide is for an owner or operations lead at a small dental practice who is close to choosing between Modento and Lighthouse 360 and needs to know which one will connect to the software already in use. It also fits a buyer who wants texting, forms, recall and phone handled by one vendor and is willing to get a written quote before comparing cost.

Red flags: your practice system or its exact version is missing from the vendor's list, the vendor will not say in writing how data moves between systems, or you expect a phone or AI product to replace your carrier contract without reviewing that contract first.

How we evaluated these two products

We weighted seven criteria by how much each one changes a small office's daily work. The weights are our judgment, not vendor or survey data. Every fact in the comparison comes from the vendors' own public pages or from independent sources we could open during research, including acquisition coverage, a software-selection site and trade press. Review platforms that list star ratings for these products were not retrievable, so this guide does not compare ratings.

What each vendor publishes about itself

This section reports only what the vendors and independent sources say. Our reading comes later.

Dental Intelligence reports 835+ admin hours saved in year one according to Dental Intelligence (undated page). The page describes this as an average across about 3,000 practices, so it is a vendor-reported average, not an independent study.

The same Engagement page names seven practice systems, including Eaglesoft, Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Denticon, Fuse, Open Dental and Open Dental Clinics, according to Dental Intelligence (undated page).

Lighthouse 360 lists 17 supported practice systems according to Lighthouse 360 (undated page). The page says only that these are systems it "integrates with now," and it does not say whether each link is native or third-party.

A 2013 trade-press item reported that Lighthouse 360 could confirm Dentrix G5 appointments and update confirmation status from patient replies, according to DentistryIQ (2013). That is an old announcement, and we found no current confirmation that it still applies.

Head-to-head on seven decisions

The table shows what each vendor's public pages say. The paragraphs after it are our analysis, labeled as such.

Our read on practice software fit. Lighthouse 360 publishes the longer list, but Dentrix Ascend and Denticon, which the Engagement page names, are absent from it. If your system appears on only one list, that list settles this criterion, and the second question is how data moves, which neither public page answers.

Our read on texting and recall. Dental Intelligence describes the broader feature set, including a patient app and treatment plans with financing. Lighthouse 360 centers on recall and reactivation, with appointment management and paperless forms, which suits an office that wants recall first and the rest later.

Our read on phone handling. Dental Intelligence documents its own VoIP phone service and an AI Receptionist that verifies callers with a one-time PIN and sends a summary and transcript to the inbox. Its public pages do not say which practice systems the AI Receptionist needs, and they do not describe a live handoff to staff. Lighthouse 360's PhoneSight appears only on a third-party profile, so verify it with the vendor.

Our read on stability. Dental Intelligence owns Modento and has not stated a product name for the combined offer, which is the largest contract risk in this comparison. Lighthouse 360 has a clearer ownership story, but its phone and reporting scope is less visible in public.

Our overall read. Dental Intelligence fits a practice that wants one vendor for texts, phone, forms and reporting, and whose system is on its list. Lighthouse 360 fits a practice whose system is on its longer list and that cares most about recall and reviews. Neither should be chosen on features alone until the integration method is in writing.

Pricing and total cost of ownership

Pricing checked October 26, 2026. The Engagement page lists no price and offers a demo request, and Lighthouse 360's site lists no price and offers a demo request or sales chat. Some third-party listings show starting figures for Lighthouse 360, but they disagree with each other and none comes from the vendor, so this guide prints none of them.

For a real comparison, ask each vendor for one written quote covering setup, phone hardware, per-user or per-location charges, messaging volume terms and renewal terms.

One recall month, worked through

Take a hypothetical office, not a customer, that sends 210 recall texts in one month. If 21 come back undelivered, that is 10% of the batch, and at 4 minutes per manual fix the 21 fixes take 84 minutes, or 1.4 hours, before a single patient books. A texting provider such as Twilio returns a status for every message, and its Message resource exposes fields such as status, error_code and date_sent, so an exceptions queue can show a reason for each failure instead of a bare count, according to Twilio (docs dated March 9, 2026).

Proposed workflow A, recall follow-up. A configurable US Tech Automations design would run each morning over the overdue-recall list. The trigger is that scheduled run. The action pulls the list from the practice management system by export or read access, removes anyone with an opt-out flag or missing consent, and sends recalls through the messaging tool the office already uses. The output is a sent log plus an exceptions queue for every undelivered message. Human review points: a staff member approves each batch during the first weeks, and no treatment language is generated automatically. Prerequisites: a confirmed export or API from your system, send and status access from the messaging provider, and a named staff approver.

Where automation fits, and where it does not

The real alternative for many offices is stitching this together in Zapier, Make or n8n, or building it in-house. Those tools can keep run histories, retry failed steps and route errors to a separate branch when someone configures them to. The buyer still has to design and own what prevents harm: idempotency so a rerun does not text a patient twice, escalation for clinical or payment issues, access controls on patient data, and maintenance when a system version or API changes. A proposed US Tech Automations design could configure run logs, an approval queue and an escalation branch for each workflow, but it depends on the same prerequisites. The integrations on our public list include Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Sheets, HubSpot, QuickBooks and Stripe, and the page we reviewed names no dental practice management system, so the connection to your system is a prerequisite to confirm, not an assumption.

When not to use US Tech Automations: if the only job is texting reminders and your practice software already sends them, use that feature. If the only job is a phone line, buy the phone product and skip an automation layer. If the only job is asking patients for reviews after a visit, the review request feature in either bundle covers it without custom work.

Vendor profiles: best fit, limits and implementation

Modento, now inside Dental Intelligence

Best fit: a practice that wants texting, forms, reminders, recall, a patient app, a phone line and reporting from one vendor, and whose system appears on the Engagement page's list.

Limitations: the product name is unsettled, the AI Receptionist's staff handoff is not described, the integration method is not published, and the bundle is broader than an office that only needs recall may use.

Implementation: confirm the integration for your exact version, confirm whether the AI Receptionist can use your phone number, plan the migration of forms and consent records, and confirm how Patient Chat sends messages. Primary evidence: the acquisition coverage cited in the first section and the Engagement page cited above.

Lighthouse 360

Best fit: a practice whose system appears on the longer list, including ABELDent, axiUm or Softdent, and that puts recall, reactivation and reviews first. Lighthouse 360 served over 11,000 practices in 2019 according to DrBicuspid (2019). That figure was Henry Schein's claim when it bought the product, and the same coverage said the product would keep its branding.

Limitations: its public pages describe no AI receptionist, analytics or patient app. Its Dentrix confirmation evidence dates from a 2013 announcement, and SelectHub's profile, which lists PhoneSight, names no specific integrations, according to SelectHub (profile undated).

Implementation: get the sync method in writing for your system and version, confirm the Dentrix version in writing if you run Dentrix, and confirm the phone setup if you use PhoneSight.

Glossary

PMS (practice management system): the software that holds appointments, charts and billing, such as Open Dental or Dentrix.

Recall: a scheduled message inviting a patient back for a routine visit.

Reactivation: outreach to patients who have not visited within a set period.

Two-way messaging: texting where a patient's reply lands in the practice's inbox.

Undelivered: a message status meaning the carrier did not deliver the text.

VoIP: phone service that runs over the internet instead of a traditional phone line.

Idempotency: a design property where repeating a run does not send the same message twice.

Decision checklist

• Confirm your practice system and exact version appear on the vendor's list.

• Ask how data moves: native link, scheduled sync or manual import, and how often it runs.

• Ask whether texts go out from your practice's number or a vendor number.

• Ask for phone and AI receptionist costs as separate line items.

• Ask who owns the product name and roadmap after the ownership changes covered above.

• Request a written three-year total that includes setup, hardware and per-user fees.

Questions buyers ask first

Is Modento still sold as its own product?

Not as a separate brand on its own site, so ask Dental Intelligence to confirm the current product name in writing. The Modento domains now forward to Dental Intelligence's site, which is why this guide treats the product as part of its Engagement offer.

Does Lighthouse 360 publish its prices?

No, its site lists no price and offers a demo request or sales chat, so you need a written quote before you can compare cost.

Which practice management systems do both support?

Eaglesoft, Dentrix and Open Dental appear on both public lists, while Dentrix Ascend and Denticon appear only on Dental Intelligence's list and ABELDent, axiUm and Softdent appear only on Lighthouse 360's list. Check your exact version on both.

Can either phone product replace my phone line?

Possibly, but only after you review your carrier contract and number porting terms. Dental Intelligence sells its own VoIP service, and SelectHub lists a cloud phone for Lighthouse 360.

Does an AI receptionist replace front-desk staff?

No, the public pages describe it covering calls when staff cannot and sending a summary to the inbox for follow-up, so keep clinical and payment questions with a person.

Do I need a separate automation layer?

Not for a single-vendor setup that already covers texts and recall. You need one when you want custom routing across tools, and it needs confirmed data access either way.

Make the call on connection and quotes

Choose Dental Intelligence's engagement bundle if one vendor for texts, forms, phone and reporting matters more than a long system list, and only after its product name and integration method are in writing. Choose Lighthouse 360 if your practice system is on its published list and recall, reactivation and reviews are the priorities, and only after its sync method and phone terms are confirmed. For a configured design built around your own systems, see how US Tech Automations configures this.