AI receptionist · Dental practices — Patients reach your practice after hours, and pain calls still go to your team
An AI receptionist for a dental office answers the calls the front desk can't take: over lunch, after hours and when every line is busy. It books cleanings, recall visits and new-patient exams from your live schedule, and answers hours and insurance questions with approved wording. Anything about pain, swelling or treatment goes to a person with a summary.
AI receptionist · live call
Mon 12:20 pm · lunch hourAgent: Thanks for calling. I'm the practice's AI assistant, and the front desk is at lunch. How can I help?
Caller: I need cleanings for my two kids, back to back if you can.
Agent: I found both of them. I have Thursday at 3:00 and 3:45 with the same hygienist. Shall I book those?
Caller: Perfect, book them.
If it's tooth pain
The agent asks nothing about the tooth. The caller goes on the urgent callback list, and the office manager calls back.
Why it matters
Why dental practices add this
Most missed dental calls are routine: a parent booking cleanings, a new patient asking whether you take their plan, someone moving an appointment. They come in at the moments the front desk is busiest or closed, and many callers simply try the next practice.
A traditional answering service takes a message, so the front desk still has to call back and book. An AI receptionist can book straight into the schedule for the visit types you allow, and leaves the clinical calls to the people trained to handle them.
Example · illustrative
A family dental office over lunch
At 12:20 pm both front desk staff are at lunch, and a mother calls to book cleanings for her two kids. The agent says it's an AI assistant, finds both children in Open Dental and books back-to-back hygiene slots. At 12:35 a new caller says a molar has been throbbing since last night. The agent asks nothing more about the tooth and adds her to the urgent callback list with a summary. At 1 pm the office manager calls her back and decides whether the dentist can fit her in.
How it works
Step by step
- Starts whenA call rings out at the front desk, comes in over lunch or after hours, or overflows when every line is busy
- 1Step 1Answer and say it's automatedThe agent greets the caller in the practice's name and says it is an AI assistant.
- 2Step 2Find out what they needIt asks whether they're a new or existing patient, which visit they want and their insurance carrier. It doesn't ask about symptoms.
- 3Step 3Book or answerCleanings, recall visits and new-patient exams are booked from the live schedule. Hours and insurance questions get the approved answer.
- A person decidesHand over pain and clinical questionsTooth pain, swelling, a broken tooth or any clinical question goes to the on-call line or urgent callback list. Staff or the dentist decide what happens next.
By hand today
- Calls ring out while the front desk checks patients in and out.
- Patients calling over lunch or after closing reach voicemail.
- Voicemails about cleanings and tooth pain wait until the next morning.
With the automation
- Calls are answered over lunch, after closing and when every line is busy.
- Cleanings and new-patient exams are booked into the practice schedule during the call.
- Callers with pain or swelling go on the urgent list for staff to call back.
- The front desk reads a short summary of each call instead of a voicemail.
What it handles
What it does alone, and what it hands over
Books on its own
Hygiene and recall visits, new-patient exams and reschedules, using the provider and room rules you set.
Answers on its own
Hours, location, parking, accepted insurance plans, what to bring and new-patient forms.
Hands to your team
Tooth pain, swelling, broken teeth, bleeding after a procedure, treatment and cost questions.
Bilingual
It can answer in English and Spanish, or other languages your patients use.
What stays with people
- The dentist and front desk decide on every emergency and anything clinical.
- Your team approves the answers it gives and the visit types it may book.
- Patients who ask for a person are transferred when the front desk is free, or pick a callback time.
Systems it connects to
- Weave
- Dentrix
- Open Dental
- Eaglesoft
- RingCentral
- Twilio
Rules to know. Calls carry patient information, so every vendor that touches it (phone, AI model and storage) must sign a HIPAA business associate agreement. We set the system up in the practice's own accounts, and the assistant says it is automated at the start of each call. In California and other all-party consent states, callers are told if the call is recorded.
Cost
Typical cost for dental practices
Typical ranges as of October 2026. Not a quote.
Ready-made tool, set up by us
An existing platform on your own account, configured for your business.
- Setup, one timepaid to Lorryn
- $1,300–$2,000
- Tool subscriptionpaid to the provider
- $75–$300 / month
Fits when your process matches what the platform already does.
Custom build
Built around how you work, with no platform subscription. You own it.
- Build, one timebasic version to full version
- $2,500–$9,500
- Running costshosting and usage, on your accounts
- ~$40–$150 / month
Fits when your systems, rules or exceptions don't match a ready tool.
Optional Automation Care: $125 · $250 · $375 / month
1, 2 or 3 hours of support a month, with monitoring and alerts included. Without it, you run it yourself after handover.
Typically works with Weave, Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft.
Booking into or writing to Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft adds up to $500 to the ready-made tool (often a built-in feature) and $500–$1,500 to a custom build.
Includes a HIPAA setup on both options: vendor agreements, accounts in your name and no patient data in our logs.
Your price depends on volume, the systems involved and how many exceptions need a person. Our team confirms a fixed price before any work starts.
FAQ
Questions owners ask
It covers the same hours, but instead of taking a message it can book the visit in your practice software. Calls it shouldn't handle, like pain or emergencies, still go to a person.
No. It doesn't ask about symptoms beyond what's needed to route the call, and it passes pain, swelling and treatment questions to your team.
It books through the schedule of systems like Open Dental, Dentrix or Eaglesoft, where they allow it, or through your online booking tool.
It can be, when every vendor in the chain signs a business associate agreement and the data stays in accounts the practice owns. We check that before anything goes live.
Yes, and they should. It says it's an AI assistant at the start of the call, and anyone can ask for a person.
The running cost is mostly phone minutes and AI usage, paid by the practice to the vendors directly. Build cost depends on your software and how many visit types it books.
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