It's 5:40 on a Thursday and the last patient just left. Your front desk has clocked out, the lights are half off, and Dialpad starts ringing — a new patient who got home from work, finally has a minute, and is calling to book a cleaning. It rings out and lands in voicemail. By tomorrow morning that caller has tried two other offices and booked with whichever one answered. Dialpad routed the call exactly as configured; there just wasn't anyone left in the building to pick it up.
DentalReception AI answers the line you forward to it from Dialpad in under two rings, finds a real open slot, and books the appointment live while the caller is still on the phone — 24 hours a day. You keep your Dialpad number and your existing setup. DentalReception AI answers the calls that come in when your team is gone or slammed.
Books live, 24/7 — working with Dialpad
DentalReception AI sits on the phone line, not inside your practice management system. When Dialpad routes a call to it — every call, after-hours only, or overflow when your team is tied up — the AI picks up, greets the caller in English or Spanish, and handles the booking, reschedule, cancellation, or emergency triage during the call. There's no voicemail to transcribe and no callback queue to clear the next day.
For practices on one of our confirmed-live platforms — Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, Curve Dental, or CareStack — the appointment is written directly into the live schedule while the patient is on the line. On any other system, DentalReception AI captures the booking details and routes them to your team. Dialpad keeps carrying and routing the call the way it always has.
The connection point is your phone line. You forward the line to a number DentalReception AI answers, and that's the integration — no new hardware, no replacing Dialpad, no change to your phone setup. Dialpad stays your cloud phone platform; DentalReception AI is the receptionist answering the calls it routes. (TODO: confirm direct Dialpad API/call-event integration depth beyond forwarding.)
What Dialpad users get
- Keep your existing number and phone system — DentalReception AI answers the line you forward; your Dialpad number, departments, and routing stay exactly as they are.
- Every call answered in under two rings — after-hours and overflow calls get picked up instead of going to voicemail. See call answering.
- After-hours and overflow coverage — forward your line after close or when your team is busy, and DentalReception AI takes the calls they can't. See after-hours answering.
- Live booking on confirmed platforms — on Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, Curve Dental, or CareStack, the appointment lands in your live schedule during the call.
- Bilingual answering — calls are handled in English or Spanish without a separate line or vendor.
- Emergency triage and routing — the agent captures and relays urgent dental situations to your on-call protocol rather than leaving them in voicemail.
How DentalReception AI connects to Dialpad
Setup is a forwarding change — no new hardware. You decide which calls Dialpad sends to DentalReception AI: all of them, after-hours and weekends only, or overflow when every line is busy. In Dialpad, you point that call flow to the number DentalReception AI answers, and the AI begins picking up. Your numbers, departments, and routing rules stay in place.
You stay in control of how much of the phone load the AI carries, and you can change it whenever you want. Most practices start with after-hours and overflow, watch the bookings appear, then route more daytime volume through DentalReception AI so the front desk can focus on patients in the chair. See implementation for what the first week looks like.
What it costs against what it saves
A missed new-patient call is an expensive miss. By industry averages, a new dental patient is worth roughly $600–$1,200 in first-year production, and practices miss somewhere between a quarter and a third of inbound calls — exactly the after-hours and overflow calls Dialpad sends to voicemail. A part-time front-desk hire to cover those gaps runs about $2,500–$3,500 a month loaded, and an answering service that only takes a message still bills by the minute. DentalReception AI is a flat monthly subscription that answers every forwarded call and books it live — see pricing.
Before and after DentalReception AI on your Dialpad line
| Before DentalReception AI | With DentalReception AI + Dialpad | |
|---|---|---|
| Missed & after-hours calls | Roughly 1 in 3 go unanswered (industry average) | Answered in under two rings, 24/7 |
| When it's booked | Later, after a callback | During the call |
| What the caller hears | Voicemail greeting | A receptionist who books them in |
| Your Dialpad number | — | Kept exactly as it is |
| New hardware | — | None — just a forwarding change |
Every call is handled under a HIPAA-compliant setup with a signed BAA available — see security.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to replace Dialpad to use DentalReception AI?
No. Dialpad stays your phone system. DentalReception AI answers the line you forward to it — that is the entire integration. You keep your Dialpad number, your departments, your call routing, and your existing setup. You simply choose which calls Dialpad sends to DentalReception AI, and the AI picks those up in under two rings and books them live. Nothing about your office phones changes, and there's no new hardware to buy or install.
Which calls can I forward from Dialpad to the AI?
Whichever ones you want. Most practices forward after-hours and weekend calls, lunch-hour overflow, or calls that overflow when every line is busy — but you can route every call through DentalReception AI if you prefer. You configure the call flow inside Dialpad to point at the number DentalReception AI answers, and you can adjust the split between your team and the AI at any time. Starting with after-hours and overflow is the easiest way to begin.
Does it book appointments or just take a message?
It books. DentalReception AI completes the appointment during the call rather than leaving a message for your team to act on later. On Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, Curve Dental, or CareStack, the appointment is written into your live schedule while the patient is on the line. On other systems, it captures the full booking details and routes them to your front desk, so nothing has to be re-keyed from a voicemail. See a live booking on a demo.
Is it HIPAA compliant when answering our patient calls?
Yes. DentalReception AI runs under a HIPAA-compliant setup, and a signed BAA is available. Patient details captured on a forwarded Dialpad call — names, callback numbers, insurance information, and the reason for the visit — are handled accordingly and routed to your team. For insurance and clinical questions, the agent captures and relays details to your staff rather than giving clinical advice. See security for more, or review pricing.