Your assistant is in the imaging room walking a new patient through their pano and ceph when the front phone starts ringing. There's no one at the desk — everyone's chairside — so it rings out. The caller was a mom who just watched her teenager get told they need braces and wanted to book a consult this week. She doesn't leave a message; she calls the next office. Meanwhile your Dolphin workups are immaculate, your treatment presentations convert, and your schedule has room. None of that mattered, because the call that would have filled the chair never got answered.
DentalReception AI answers that call in under two rings, qualifies the consult, and captures the booking while the caller is on the line — 24/7. It works alongside Dolphin Imaging and your scheduling system so your clinical team can stay focused on imaging and treatment planning instead of chasing the phone.
Books live, 24/7 — so calls don't compete with chairside
In an ortho practice, the people who could answer the phone are usually the same people running imaging and adjustments. That's exactly why calls get missed — not because the front desk is lazy, but because they're hands-on with a patient. DentalReception AI removes that conflict entirely. It answers every call instantly, handles the new-patient consult request, reschedules an adjustment, or routes an urgent question, so a ringing phone never pulls a team member away from the chair and never goes to voicemail.
Dolphin Imaging is your imaging and treatment-planning hub, not one of our five confirmed real-time write-back scheduling systems. DentalReception AI connects via API and works alongside your Dolphin and scheduling workflow rather than writing into it directly. It captures the full booking — patient details, reason for the visit, requested provider, preferred times — and delivers a clean, ready-to-enter record so your coordinator can place it in seconds. (TODO: confirm integration depth.) See appointment scheduling.
What Dolphin Imaging users get
- No phone-versus-chair tradeoff — calls are answered by the AI, so your imaging and clinical staff stay with the patient in front of them. See call answering.
- Consult capture, 24/7 — new-patient inquiries are qualified and booked even when every team member is chairside or the office is closed. See new patient calls.
- Reschedule and adjustment handling — existing patients moving an appointment get a live answer instead of voicemail. See appointment rescheduling.
- Bilingual answering — English and Spanish callers are handled by one system.
- Full call records — transcripts and summaries land with your team so nothing from the call is lost. See the analytics dashboard.
How DentalReception AI connects to Dolphin Imaging
Setup is a forwarding change plus a one-time sync of your providers, appointment types, and scheduling rules — no new hardware and no change to Dolphin itself. You forward your main or after-hours line to DentalReception AI; it answers, qualifies, and captures bookings, then hands those records to your team to enter alongside your Dolphin workflow. You decide the coverage: after-hours and overflow, or every call. See implementation and the full integrations list.
Before and after DentalReception AI
| Before DentalReception AI | With DentalReception AI + Dolphin Imaging | |
|---|---|---|
| Missed & after-hours calls | Roughly 1 in 3 go unanswered (industry average) | Answered in under two rings, 24/7 |
| Phone vs. chairside | Staff pulled away or call missed | No conflict — AI answers |
| New consult inquiries | Voicemail, often lost | Captured and qualified live |
| Reschedule calls | Phone tag | Handled on the call |
| After-hours coverage | None | Full, every night and weekend |
Every call is handled under a HIPAA-compliant setup with a signed BAA available — see security.
Frequently asked questions
Does DentalReception AI connect to Dolphin Imaging directly?
Dolphin Imaging is an imaging and treatment-planning platform, so there is no live appointment write-back to it. DentalReception AI connects via API and works alongside your Dolphin and scheduling workflow: it answers and qualifies calls, captures the complete booking, and hands your coordinator a ready-to-enter record. (TODO: confirm integration depth.) Our five confirmed real-time write-back PMS systems are Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, Curve Dental, and CareStack. The value here is that calls stop competing with chairside work and stop going to voicemail.
How does it help when my whole team is in the imaging room?
That's the core problem it solves. When everyone is chairside running imaging or adjustments, there's no one to grab the phone — so it rings out. DentalReception AI answers every call in under two rings regardless of what your team is doing, captures consults and reschedules, and lets your clinical staff stay with the patient in front of them. See reduce front-desk burnout.
Can it handle new braces and Invisalign consult calls?
Yes. New-patient consult capture is exactly what it's built for. The AI answers in under two rings, fields common cost and timeline questions at a high level, and books the consult request so the lead doesn't ring out and book elsewhere. See book more new patients.
Does it work for a multi-location ortho practice?
Yes. DentalReception AI is built first for group and multi-location practices. It routes callers to the right office, respects each location's providers and hours, and standardizes how every call is handled across the group. See orthodontics or book a demo.