Everything a great receptionist does. Better.
dentdial is not a chatbot bolted onto a phone line. It’s a full reception layer for dental practices — built around how patients actually call, how diaries actually work, and how the GDC actually regulates.
24/7 call answering.
Picks up every ring within two seconds. Works during opening hours as overflow, or 24/7 as your full reception layer. No voicemail. No “the practice is now closed.”
Live diary booking.
Reads clinician availability in Dentally, SOE, R4 or iSmile in real time. Books appointments straight into the right column, the right duration, the right clinician. Holds the slot during the conversation so two patients never collide.
Clinical triage.
Trained on UK dental emergencies. Distinguishes pain from sensitivity, fracture from chip, abscess from gum irritation. Routes urgent cases to the next emergency slot or escalates to an on-call clinician’s phone.
New patient capture.
Collects name, DOB, address, medical history flags, GP, allergies, current medications, dental plan or PAYG preference, and consent. Lands as a complete new patient record in your PMS.
Recall & reactivation calls.
Outbound campaigns to lapsed patients on a schedule you set. Friendly, on-brand, with diary slots ready to offer. 3–5× conversion vs SMS-only recalls.
Twelve languages, native fluency.
English, Polish, Punjabi, Urdu, Romanian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, Mandarin, Bengali. Detects the caller’s language automatically. English transcripts in your inbox either way.
Your voice. Optional.
Use the default dentdial voice, or clone a member of your team from a 10-minute sample. Patients hear a familiar voice. You hear no difference between in-hours and out-of-hours service.
Recognises returning patients.
Cross-references inbound numbers with your patient database. Greets returning patients by name. Skips the medical history they already gave you. Faster call, better experience.
Deposit capture by SMS.
Sends a Stripe payment link mid-call for treatments that require a deposit. Confirms the booking only once paid. Cuts no-shows by 60–80%.
Every call, every outcome.
Real-time dashboard: calls answered, bookings made, emergency triage, average handle time, conversion rate, missed opportunities. Filter by clinician, time of day, language, source.
Answers your phone FAQs.
Parking, opening hours, finance options, treatment timelines, plan pricing, what each treatment involves — answered in your tone of voice, from a knowledge base you control.
Knows when to call a human.
Complaints, complex medical histories, distressed patients — escalated to a named team member by phone or Slack. The handoff includes the full conversation context.
Multi-clinician aware.
Knows Dr Smith does Invisalign on Tuesdays and Dr Jones does implants Mondays and Fridays. Books with the right clinician, not just the first available slot.
Built for groups.
One number, multiple practices. Patient picks location, dentdial books in the right diary. Group-level reporting, site-level rules. Used by 2-site to 40-site operators.
CQC-friendly by design.
Consent captured on every call. Recordings retained for the period you set (default 90 days). Full audit log. Complaints flagged for follow-up under your GDC-compliant complaints procedure.
Plan-aware booking and pricing.
Reads each patient’s plan status from Dentally before proposing a slot or quoting a price. NHS exam vs private exam. NHS recall intervals vs private preferences. Exemption codes that affect what a patient can be charged. The bits a US-imported AI receptionist either hides or gets quietly wrong.
Emergency triage your CQC Registered Manager signed.
Most AI receptionists claim emergency triage. Few publish the protocol. Fewer still let it be audited. dentdial works against a configurable triage protocol your Registered Manager reviews and signs off in writing. Every triage decision is logged against the protocol it followed — defensible in front of CQC, GDC, or a complaining patient.
Takes deposits for new-patient bookings.
For new-patient appointments — consultations, cosmetic assessments, implant reviews — dentdial sends a Stripe payment link to the caller’s mobile mid-call. The booking is only confirmed once the deposit clears. Cuts no-shows on the highest-value slots in the diary.