# Forgotten passwords

If your dental institution allows patients to recover forgotten passwords, you need to:

1. Enable the “Forgot Password” link in the Login panel of the Home page.
2. Set up the email server, if this has not been set up for patient self-registration.
3. Set up your dental institution’s email address for self-registration emails.

After you've completed the setup, you can customize the text of emails and messages in addition to setting the length of time the password reset links are valid.

Enable the "Forgot Password" link

After you enable the password reset link, patients can go to the Login area of the PatientAccess CMS Home page, and click the "Forgot Password" link to reset their password.

To enable the "Forgot Password" link:

1. On the Settings tab, click Login.
2. In Parameters, select 0 in the Security.RecoverForgottenPassword box, and then enter 1.
3. Click the Save button.

Note: Ensure that you have a patient’s email address recorded in the PatientAccess CMS (Patient Info) to enable patients to reset their passwords.

`What's next?`

You should set up the email server to allow patients to receive emails. This is not necessary if you have already set up emails for patient self-registration. For instructions on setting up the email server, see Patient self-registration.

Configure your dental institution's email address for password reset emails

To configure your dental institution’s email address:

1. On the Settings tab, click Password Reset.
2. In Labels/Messages, select the UI.PasswordResetEmailFromEmail box, and then type in the email address of the sender.
3. Click the Save button.

Customize your dental institution’s name for password reset emails

To set up your dental institution’s name displayed in the body of the password reset emails:

1. On the Settings tab, click Password Reset.
2. In Labels/Messages, select the text inside the UI.PasswordResetEmailFromName box, and enter the sender’s name that will display next to the sender’s email address in password reset emails.
3. Click the Save button.

In the example below, the sender’s name appears in the top-left corner.

Set the expiry time for a password reset

You can reset the length of time for which password reset links are valid.

To set the expiry time for a password reset:

1. On the Settings tab, click Password Reset.
2. In the Security.PasswordResetEmailExpireTime box, select the value, and enter a value in hours.

A value of “0” indicates that the link never expires.

1. Click the Save button.

What's next?

Now you can customize emails and text that are sent to patients as part of the password reset process. For instructions on setting up emails and text, see Patient self-registration.

Configure your dental institution's email address for password reset emails

To configure your dental institution’s email address:

1. On the Settings tab, click Password Reset.
2. In Labels/Messages, select the text inside the UI.PasswordResetEmailFromEmail box, and type your email address.
3. Click the Save button.

Set up emails/text for password resets

To set up emails/text for password resets:

1. On the Settings tab, click Password Reset.
2. In Labels/Messages, select the text in any of the boxes beginning with UI.Password*, and make your edit.
3. Click the Save button.

Edit replacement strings in the body of password reset emails

For password reset emails, you can customize replacement strings in the CMS labels/messages settings. The following replacement strings are placeholders for text in emails:

- {0} (This placeholder displays a patient’s first name in emails.)
- {1} (This placeholder displays a patient’s last name in emails.)
- {2} (This placeholder displays the expiry date/time of the email.)
- {3} (This placeholder displays the link to confirm a password reset in emails.)

For example, you may want to include only the patient’s first name in the body of the password request email.

To edit a replacement string in the body of an email:

1. On the Settings tab, click Password Reset.
2. In Labels/Messages, select the replacement string in the UI.PasswordResetEmailRequestBody box, and make your edit. For example, we'll select the UI. PasswordResetEmailRequestBody box, and then remove the placeholder {1} Patient Last Name, so that the patient’s last name does not appear in the password reset email.
3. Click the Save button.

Now, in the password reset email example below, only the patient’s first name is included in the email.