How to Send Your Dental Records to a New Dentist
Last updated 2026-08-15
Getting your records out of an old dental office is one problem. Getting them to the next dentist is a different one, and it is the one that usually stalls — the files are too big to email, the new office wants them before your first appointment, and nobody wants to install anything. Here is how to send them properly, and how to decide what to actually include.
The short version: send a packet, not attachments. Pick only the sections the recipient needs, send it by email or fax, and let large x-rays go as a secure link instead of a file. The office on the other end needs no account and no software.
The one-button way
A Dental Passport keeps your records in one place you control, and sending them on is a compose screen: who it goes to, what goes in it, send. The packet is digitally signed, so the receiving office can tell it came from your passport rather than trusting a forwarded email from a stranger.
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Open your passport and go to Deliveries
This is the compose screen for sending a records packet. If you do not have a passport yet, creating one takes an email address and about a minute, and it is free.
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Enter who it is going to
A name plus an email address, a fax number, or both — offices still run on fax more than anyone expects, so the fallback is there on purpose. If the practice is already connected to your passport you can pick it from the list instead of typing anything.
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Choose which sections to include
Tick only what this recipient needs: identity, medical history, implants, imaging, timeline, treatment history, signed forms, recordings. A second opinion on one tooth is not a reason to send a decade of history.
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Add a note if it needs context
A short message travels with the packet — “this is the tooth I was told needs a crown” saves the office a phone call. Optional, and capped at a paragraph.
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Send it, or download it instead
Send by email or fax, or choose to download the packet and hand it over yourself. Whichever you pick, the delivery is logged in your passport so you can prove what went where.
Create a free passport and send your records
Free for patients. Your passport is encrypted, and nothing goes to any dental office unless you send it or grant access.
What to actually include
The instinct is to send everything, on the theory that more information is safer. For a new dentist taking over your care, that is roughly right — medical history, treatment history, implants and imaging give them the picture they would otherwise spend two appointments rebuilding.
For anyone else, less is better. A specialist you are seeing once about a single tooth needs the imaging and the relevant history, not your signed forms and not every hygiene visit. A second opinion is stronger when the other dentist sees the same evidence you were shown rather than a decade of unrelated context. And every section you leave out is information that does not end up in another practice’s system, which is a reason on its own.
Sending x-rays and CBCT scans
Imaging is where sending records usually breaks down. A full-mouth series is large; a CBCT volume is routinely several hundred megabytes. No mail server will carry that as an attachment, which is why so many patients end up hand-carrying a CD from one office to another — or, more often, why the new dentist simply retakes the images.
From a passport, large imaging is forwarded as a secure link generated from the copy already stored there. Nothing is re-uploaded from your phone, nothing has to fit inside an email, and the link expires on its own rather than living in an inbox forever. Because that hands a large file to someone outside your passport, the first time you forward imaging you are asked to confirm your identity once with a photo ID. It is a one-time check, and it exists so that the person forwarding your scans is you.
Retaken x-rays are not free — they cost you an appointment, and they cost you the radiation dose. Images you already have are worth the two minutes it takes to send them.
If the office is already connected
Sharing with a practice already linked to your passport works differently and more simply: you switch sharing on for a document, and you can switch it off again later. It is per document and per practice, so connecting to an office never means handing it your whole passport, and revoking is a toggle rather than a phone call. An access log shows every time something was opened.
One thing worth thinking about first
A packet you email or fax to an outside office has arrived. You can stop sharing with a connected practice whenever you like, but you cannot recall a delivered document any more than you could recall a printed one — which is exactly why the section picker is there, and why it is worth ten seconds rather than a reflexive select-all. Send what the recipient needs to do their job well. That is usually less than everything, and it is always your call.
If you do not have your records yet, start on the other side of the problem: how to get your dental records from a previous dentist, including what a former office is legally required to hand over and how long it has to do it.
Common questions
Can I just email my dental records to a new dentist?
For a few pages, yes — but plain email is the wrong tool for most dental records. Chart notes are health information, and a normal inbox is not a place to leave them sitting. X-rays are the bigger problem: a full-mouth series or a CBCT scan is routinely hundreds of megabytes, far past what any mail server will accept. Sending a packet with a secure link avoids both problems, and the office does not need an account or any software to open it.
Does the new dentist need an account to receive them?
No. The office gets your packet by email or fax and opens it directly. Nothing is installed, nothing is signed up for, and no one at the receiving office has to create a login. That matters because the practice on the other end has no reason to adopt your software just to read your history.
Do I have to send my whole record?
No, and usually you should not. You choose which sections go: identity, medical history, implants, imaging, visit timeline, treatment history, signed forms, recordings. A specialist looking at one implant does not need every cleaning you have had since 2014. Sending less is both faster to read and less of your information sitting in someone else’s system.
How do I send x-rays or a CBCT scan that is too big to email?
Large imaging is forwarded as a secure link rather than an attachment, generated from the copy already stored in your passport — so nothing is re-uploaded and nothing has to fit in a mail server’s size limit. The link expires on its own. Because forwarding imaging puts a large file into someone else’s hands, that specific action asks you to confirm your identity once with a photo ID before the first send.
Can I send records to a dentist I am already connected to?
Yes, and it is simpler. If a practice is already linked to your passport you can switch sharing on for individual documents without composing anything, and switch it back off later. Sharing is per-document and per-practice, so connecting to an office does not hand it everything.
Can I take it back after I send it?
Sharing with a connected practice can be turned off again at any time. A packet you have already emailed or faxed to an outside office is like any other delivered document — it has arrived, and it is theirs to keep. That is worth thinking about for one moment before you pick the sections, which is the honest reason the section picker exists.
Is there a record of what I sent?
Yes. Every delivery is listed in your passport with who it went to, when, and which sections it contained, alongside an access log for anything shared with a connected practice. If a new office later says it never received anything, you are not relying on memory.
Create your free Dental Passport
This page explains a patient right under U.S. federal law in general terms. It is information, not legal advice, and state law can add protections on top of it.