Why dental clinics miss calls
A dental front desk is rarely quiet. In the same five minutes, your receptionist might be checking a patient in, taking a payment, processing a health fund claim and explaining a treatment plan. When the phone rings in the middle of that, something has to give.
The calls that slip through are often the ones that matter most. A new patient ringing three clinics to see who can fit them in. A parent trying to book the kids in before the school holidays. Someone with a cracked tooth at 8pm, wondering whether it can wait until morning.
An AI receptionist answers those calls, every time, and handles them the way your best receptionist would.
New patients, booked properly
New patients often call more than one clinic, and the one that answers and books them in first tends to win the appointment. Your AI receptionist offers suitable times straight away, books the right appointment type and length for a new patient exam, and takes their details.
It answers the questions new patients ask before they commit: whether you see children, what a check-up and clean involves, whether you offer payment plans, which health funds you're a preferred provider for, and where to park. After the call, it sends an SMS confirmation with your address and a link to your new patient form, so they arrive with the paperwork done.
Dental emergencies and after-hours calls
Emergencies rarely arrive at a convenient time. Your AI receptionist asks the triage questions you approve, such as whether there's swelling, bleeding, a knocked-out tooth or a fever, and acts on the answers.
Calls that meet your urgent criteria are put straight through to your on-call dentist. Calls that can wait are booked into your first available emergency slot, with advice on what to do in the meantime, written by your team. If a caller describes trouble breathing or swallowing, it tells them to call 000 straight away.
It doesn't diagnose, and it doesn't give clinical advice beyond what you've approved. Its job is to get the patient to the right person, quickly.
Recalls, reschedules and cancellations
Plenty of calls are about appointments that already exist: moving a check-up, cancelling because of a sick child, confirming a time. Your AI receptionist handles these without putting anyone on hold. It confirms who's calling, finds the appointment, offers new times and updates your book.
When a patient cancels, it offers to rebook straight away, which helps keep gaps out of your schedule. If you charge for late cancellations, it explains your policy in your words.
Working with your practice management system
Where your practice management system allows it, your AI receptionist books directly into your appointment book and follows the same rules your team does. Where direct booking isn't available, it takes a booking request with the patient's preferred times, and your team confirms it from the summary. We'll confirm which applies on the discovery call, before you commit to anything.
What your team sees each morning
Every call ends with a short summary sent to your team by SMS and email: who called, why, what was done and anything that needs follow-up. Overnight calls are waiting in one tidy list when the front desk opens, sorted by type, so urgent follow-ups are seen first.
Patient privacy
Patients are told they're speaking with the clinic's AI assistant in the greeting, every time. You approve every script, including how it responds to clinical questions, and anything sensitive is passed to your team rather than handled by the AI. Each call is transcribed for the summary. Whether audio is also recorded is agreed with you before go-live, and you can ask us to delete call records at any time.