It's a Saturday afternoon and a parent is sitting in a parking lot researching braces for their twelve-year-old. They've got a few minutes before the next errand, and they call your orthodontic office to ask about cost and book a consult. The office is closed. The phone rings out to a voicemail that says you'll call back Monday. Your OrthoFi setup is ready to handle their financing and payment plan the moment they're a patient — but they aren't a patient yet, because no one answered the call that would have made them one. By Monday, they've booked a consult with the practice down the road that picked up.
DentalReception AI answers that call in under two rings, captures the parent's questions, finds a real open consult slot, and books it live — 24/7. OrthoFi keeps handling financing and billing for the patients you convert; DentalReception AI makes sure the calls that create those patients never ring out.
Books live, 24/7 — alongside OrthoFi
OrthoFi is patient financing and billing software built for orthodontics. It handles payment plans, insurance billing, patient pay, and the revenue-cycle work that turns a treatment plan into collected dollars. It's powerful at what it does — but it works on patients you've already won. It doesn't answer the phone, talk to a curious parent, or book the consult that starts the whole relationship.
That's where DentalReception AI fits. It answers the live call, understands what the caller needs, offers a genuine open slot, and books the consult during the call instead of leaving a voicemail or a callback task. The split is clean: DentalReception AI brings the patient in the door; OrthoFi handles their financing and billing once they're in treatment. Your appointment scheduling finishes on the call, so the demand OrthoFi is built to monetize actually reaches your chair.
For practices whose schedule lives in a confirmed-live PMS — Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, or Curve Dental — DentalReception AI writes the consult straight into that live schedule in real time. With OrthoFi itself, it connects via API and runs alongside your financing and billing workflow. (TODO: confirm integration depth) — we don't claim a tested financing-write or billing-sync into OrthoFi until it's verified.
What orthodontic practices on OrthoFi get
- A live answer for every call — the parent calling on a weekend about braces gets a real conversation in under two rings, not a voicemail. See call answering.
- Consults booked, not just messages taken — the new ortho lead is on the schedule during the call, ready for the financing OrthoFi will set up later. See book more new patients.
- After-hours and weekend coverage — the calls that come when ortho shoppers actually have time to call get answered and booked. See after-hours answering.
- Qualified ortho leads captured — the agent collects the caller's questions, child's age, and reason for the call and routes them to your treatment coordinator.
- Payment-reminder calls — the agent can place reminder calls and route patients to your payment flow, complementing the balances OrthoFi tracks. See payment reminders.
A safety note: DentalReception AI captures and relays cost questions, insurance, and intake details and routes them to your team. It does not quote a financing plan, approve credit, or guarantee coverage on its own — OrthoFi and your coordinators handle that.
How DentalReception AI connects to OrthoFi
Setup is a forwarding change plus a one-time schedule sync — no new hardware and no disruption to OrthoFi. You point your main or after-hours line to DentalReception AI, we sync to your scheduling source so the agent reads real availability, and it starts answering and booking consults. OrthoFi keeps running financing, billing, and patient pay exactly as before. The two systems sit side by side: one wins the patient on the phone, the other finances and bills them through treatment. See implementation.
You decide how much of the call volume the AI carries — only after-hours and weekend overflow, or every inbound call — and you can change that mix whenever you like.
Before and after
| Before DentalReception AI | With DentalReception AI + OrthoFi | |
|---|---|---|
| Missed & after-hours calls | Roughly 1 in 3 go unanswered (industry average) | Answered in under two rings, 24/7 |
| The weekend ortho shopper | Voicemail, books elsewhere | Consult booked live during the call |
| When it's booked | Later, after a callback | During the call |
| OrthoFi's role | Financing, billing, patient pay | Unchanged — runs alongside |
| New ortho leads | Often missed off-hours | Captured and booked into a consult |
Every call is handled under a HIPAA-compliant setup with a signed BAA available — see security.
Frequently asked questions
Does DentalReception AI replace OrthoFi?
No. They handle opposite ends of the patient journey. OrthoFi manages orthodontic financing, insurance billing, and patient pay for patients already in treatment. DentalReception AI answers the live phone calls that turn a curious caller into a booked consult in the first place. Most orthodontic practices keep OrthoFi for financing and billing and add DentalReception AI so no consult call — especially on evenings and weekends, when ortho shoppers call — rings out unanswered. The two are complementary, not competing.
Does DentalReception AI quote financing or set up payment plans through OrthoFi?
No. DentalReception AI books the consult and captures the caller's cost questions and details, then routes them to your treatment coordinator and your OrthoFi workflow. It connects to OrthoFi via API and works alongside it. We're still confirming the depth of any financing-write or billing-sync into OrthoFi (TODO: confirm integration depth), so we won't claim the agent quotes plans, approves credit, or posts billing on its own until that's verified. Quoting and approving financing stays with OrthoFi and your team.
Where does the consult actually get booked?
Into your live schedule. DentalReception AI writes appointments in real time into the confirmed-live practice management systems we integrate with — Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, Curve Dental, and CareStack — during the call. OrthoFi handles financing and billing; your PMS holds the schedule. The agent reads real availability and books the consult into a slot that actually exists, so there's no double-booking and no re-keying for your front desk.
What happens to calls after hours or on weekends?
They get answered and booked. DentalReception AI runs 24/7, so the parent researching braces on a Saturday is answered in under two rings and booked into a consult — no voicemail, no missed lead. Evenings and weekends are precisely when ortho shoppers have time to call, and they're the calls most practices miss. See a live booking on a demo or review pricing.