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Logbook app vs notebook vs spreadsheet
Most dental students keep their cases in one of three places: a notebook, a spreadsheet, or an app. We make an app, so we're not neutral. This page says where the other two are genuinely better, and you can judge the rest.
The short answer
- Keep the paper your faculty signs. If your department wants signatures on its own sheet, nothing replaces that sheet.
- A notebook is fine for a handful of cases, but it can't hold photos, count requirements or survive being lost.
- A spreadsheet is good at totals, but it's slow to fill at the chair and photos end up somewhere else.
- A logbook app wins once you have dozens of cases, photos and requirements to track, as long as it works offline and lets you export everything.
Side by side
| Notebook | Spreadsheet | OnlyTeeth | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logging at the chair | Fast to scribble, hard to read later | Slow on a phone; usually done at night, if at all | Under a minute: department, procedure, tooth. Or say it out loud (Premium) |
| Clinical photos | No; they sit in your gallery | No; links at best | Filed under the case, by stage, in private storage |
| Requirements | Count by hand | Formulas, if you build them | Counted as you log, per department (one department free, all on Premium) |
| Follow-ups | Only if you reread it | Only if you check it | Next step and overdue visits on each case, with clinic reminders |
| Medical alerts | Written once, easy to miss | A column nobody reads | Shown in red every time you open the case |
| Finding an old case | Flip pages | Search, if you typed it consistently | Search by tooth, procedure or department |
| No signal | Always works | Depends on the app | Works offline, syncs later |
| If you lose it | Gone | Safe if it's in the cloud | Safe with cloud backup (Premium); always exportable |
| Signed by your faculty | Yes: often the official record | Printed, sometimes | Printed logbook (Premium); check your faculty accepts it |
| Phone rules in clinic | No phone needed | Needs a phone or laptop | Needs your phone; log right after if phones aren't allowed at the chair |
| Reports, slides, CV | Start from scratch | Copy and paste | Built from your cases (Premium) |
| Cost | A few pounds | Free | Free plan with unlimited cases; Premium is paid, with 30 days free |
Where the notebook really is better
It needs no battery, no signal and no phone, which matters in clinics that don't allow phones at the chair. And in many faculties the signed sheet or logbook is the official record. If that's true for you, keep it. Use an app for everything the paper can't do: the photos, the counting and the follow-ups.
Where the spreadsheet really is better
It's free, it's flexible, and if your faculty wants a specific Excel layout you can match it exactly. If you're disciplined enough to update it after every clinic, it works. Most students aren't, by the second month, and the photos still live somewhere else. OnlyTeeth exports a spreadsheet of all your cases on every plan, so you can have both.
How to choose
- Ask your department what it officially accepts. Keep that, whatever else you use.
- Count roughly how many cases you'll log this year. Past about twenty, paper stops being searchable.
- If you take clinical photos, keep them with the case, not in your gallery and chat groups. That alone rules out paper and spreadsheets.
- Whatever you choose, check on day one that you can get all your data out. See how to keep a dental case log.
Try it on your next case
Every new account gets 30 days of Premium free, then keeps a free plan with unlimited cases. Your cases are always yours to read and export.