Your front desk is with a patient. The phone is still ringing.
New-patient calls cluster at lunch and after work, when your desk is busiest. A dental answering service that answers every one and books the appointment.
A new patient is worth their first visit plus every visit after it — for most practices, thousands of dollars over the relationship. They are also the least patient caller you have: someone choosing a dentist is working down a list, and the practice that answers is usually the practice that gets the appointment.
The calls you miss are not spread evenly. They bunch at lunchtime and just after work, when your front desk is either at lunch or dealing with the people physically in front of them. Those are also the hours when someone who has just decided to find a dentist sits down to make the call.
A call it takes without you.
Good afternoon — how can I help you today?
Hi, I'm looking to book a cleaning. I'm a new patient.
Of course, I can get that booked. Can I take your name?
Maria Delgado.
Thanks Maria. I have Thursday at 2:10, or Friday morning at 9:30 — which suits you better?
- ✓Overflow and after-hours calls answered
- ✓New-patient appointments booked 24/7
- ✓Routine questions about hours, location and services handled
- ✓Missed calls returned automatically on AI Front Desk 24/7
It answers what you tell it to answer — which plans you accept, whether you file on the patient's behalf, what a new-patient exam costs. What it will not do is guess at coverage or quote a number you haven't given it. Anything outside its brief it takes as a message rather than inventing an answer.
Dental Practices answering service — questions
Will it book straight into our existing calendar?+
Yes — it checks real availability and books the appointment, so the slot is taken the moment the call ends rather than sitting in a message queue for somebody to action later.
What about patients calling about pain out of hours?+
The agent is briefed on how you want urgent cases handled. It reassures the caller, captures what is wrong, and either books the earliest available slot or flags it for immediate attention, depending on the rules you set.
Can it answer questions about treatments and pricing?+
It answers from what you give it. Practices typically load in their hours, location, parking, accepted plans, new-patient fees and the questions they field twenty times a week. For anything clinical it takes a message rather than advising.
Does it replace our front-desk staff?+
No — it takes the calls they cannot get to. Most practices use it for overflow when the desk is busy and for evenings, weekends and holidays when nobody is there at all. Your team keeps the patients in the building; the AI keeps the phone from going unanswered.
What does it cost?+
Solopreneur is $249 a month including 500 conversation minutes — roughly 125 to 250 calls. AI Front Desk 24/7 is $995 a month including 2,000 minutes, and adds automatic callback for missed calls. Either plan is 25 cents a minute beyond the included minutes.
How does an answering service work?+
Your business line is forwarded to the service, either all the time or only when you don't pick up. From the caller's side nothing changes — they dial your number and somebody answers. Ours answers, asks the questions you've set, and books the appointment into your calendar, then the details reach you.
What is an answering service?+
A service that answers your business phone when you can't. Traditionally that meant an off-site operator taking a message for you to return later. An AI answering service handles the call to a finished outcome instead — qualifying the caller and booking the job rather than passing you a message slip.
How much does an answering service cost?+
Most small businesses pay between $200 and $1,500 a month depending on volume and whether calls are handled by people or AI. Per-minute plans typically run $1.00–$2.00 a minute, per-call plans $1.50–$3.50 a call. Ours are flat: $249/mo with 500 included minutes, or $995/mo with 2,000.
What are the advantages of an answering service?+
Three that matter. Every call is answered, so enquiries stop going to voicemail. Several calls are answered at once, so nobody gets a busy signal on your busiest day. And it covers the hours you can't — nights, weekends and holidays — which is when the most urgent calls tend to arrive.
How do I choose an answering service?+
Call it before you buy it. Published pricing, no long-term contract, and a service built around your trade rather than a generic script all matter — but the only reliable test is hearing how it handles a call. Our demo line is a real number that answers at any hour.
What should I look for in a call answering service?+
Whether it books or only takes messages; what it costs when you exceed the plan; whether hold time and robocalls are billable; how quickly it goes live; and whether it can be briefed on what counts as an emergency in your trade. Ask for the overage rate specifically — it is the number most often left out of a quote.
Stop losing the calls you never hear.
Plans start at $249 a month. Live in two to four business days.