What an AI receptionist for a dental practice does
An AI receptionist for a dental practice answers the clinic's phone number in a natural voice, tells the caller it is an AI, and handles the routine work of the front desk phone: opening hours, directions, services, bookings and messages. Calls that need a person are passed to one, according to rules the practice sets.
The same applies to a medical centre, a physio or any clinic where one or two people run the desk. Most calls to a clinic are one of a handful of things: can I get in this week, are you open Saturday, where do I park, I need to move my appointment, I'm in pain and need someone now.
It answers from what it learned about your practice. On setup it reads your website, up to five pages, and builds what we call the Brain: your services, hours, location and common questions. You can edit it afterwards.
What it doesn't do is give clinical advice. It can say what you offer and when you can see someone. It should never tell a caller what is wrong with them, and you should write that into its guidelines in plain words.
How front desk staff use it on a Mac today
Front desk staff use the Prepaid AI dashboard in a browser on the front desk Mac, alongside the practice software. The dashboard shows each call as it finishes, with a summary, a transcript, any message taken and any appointment booked. Nothing is installed on the Mac, and the AI answers whether or not the browser is open.
A native Mac app, for answering and placing calls from the computer itself, is being designed. Until it exists, the browser dashboard is the tool, and it covers the work a desk needs. Keep it in a pinned tab, or add it to the Dock from Safari's File menu.
Three screens do most of the work for a clinic:
- Calls. Every call with a short summary on top and the full transcript beneath.
- Calendar. Appointments the AI booked, beside the services and hours you set.
- People. Everyone who has called, with those needing a call back at the top.
A live view shows whether the AI is on a call. The words arrive when the call ends.
A day at the front desk, hour by hour
An automated receptionist earns its place at particular moments in a clinic's day.
The morning rush
Between opening and mid-morning, a desk is checking patients in, taking payments and answering the door. The phone rings through all of it. Because the AI can hold several calls at once, the caller who rings while two others are already on the line still gets an answer straight away.
The desk stays with the patient in front of them, and reads the Calls screen when there is a gap.
Lunch
Lunch is when working people ring, and when a small practice has the fewest hands free. The AI carries on answering and booking through the break. Coming back means reading a short list.
Overflow and the awkward caller
Some calls should reach a person. A nervous patient who wants reassurance, a parent with a complicated question, someone disputing an account. You tell the AI when to put a caller through and to whom, and during opening hours it transfers them to the desk. If nobody is free, it takes a proper message with the caller's name and number, so the return call starts with the facts already known.
Urgent words
This is the setting to spend the most care on. You give the AI a list of urgent words and phrases. For a dental practice the starting list covers severe pain, a knocked out tooth, bleeding, swelling, an abscess and a broken tooth. For a medical front desk you would write your own, with your clinicians.
When a caller uses one, the AI flags the call as urgent so it sits at the top of the list, and it can put the caller through to the person you have named. Decide in advance who that is at each time of day, and what the AI should say if the caller describes something that needs an ambulance.
After hours
After closing, the same number is still answered. Routine callers get their questions answered and can book for another day. Urgent callers are handled by your after-hours rule: put through to the on-call clinician, or given the instruction you have written. After-hours calls for clinics goes through how to set that up, and the after-hours page shows the caller's side.
Next morning, the desk opens the dashboard and sees who rang, what they wanted and what was booked.
Bookings without double booking
The AI books from your own services and hours, using a booking engine built into the product. It checks for free times first and offers only the times that check returned.
To keep it clear of commitments held elsewhere, paste your Google Calendar's private address into the Calendar page once. From then on the AI only offers times that are free there as well. Bookings it makes are kept in the Prepaid AI calendar, and the practice is told by email.
If your appointments live in practice management software, the AI can't see that diary. Many practices handle this by giving the AI a limited set of bookable slots, such as new patient check-ups at set times, and having it take a message for everything else. The desk confirms from the real diary. See booking appointments by phone with AI.
What the AI should and shouldn't handle
| Situation | A sensible rule |
|---|---|
| Hours, location, parking, services | The AI answers |
| New patient wanting a check-up | The AI books into the slots you allow |
| Rescheduling an existing appointment | The AI takes a message, the desk confirms |
| Caller uses an urgent word | Flagged urgent, put through to the named person |
| Question about symptoms or treatment | The AI does not advise. Message or transfer |
| Account or insurance dispute | Put through in hours, message after hours |
A note on privacy
Every call is recorded and transcribed, and callers are told at the start they are speaking with an AI. Prepaid AI does not claim any healthcare privacy certification. Treat the AI as you would a general phone service: have it collect a name, a number and a short reason for calling, and keep detailed clinical history for your own systems. Recording and disclosure rules differ by country, so check what applies to your practice. AI call disclosure rules is a starting point.
Try it at your own front desk
You can test this without changing anything at the practice. The free trial runs 7 days with no card, and you can talk to your AI in the browser on the front desk Mac before you pay for anything. Plans with a local number start at US$29 for 100 minutes over 30 days, and the pricing page lists them all. See also the pages for dental practices and physio clinics, and the guide to AI phones for dental and physio clinics.
FAQ
Is there a Mac app for the AI receptionist?
A native Mac app for answering and placing calls is being designed. Today staff use the dashboard in Safari or Chrome on any Mac, with nothing to install.
Does the AI tell patients it is an AI?
Yes. It says so at the start of every call, and that disclosure is on by default.
Can an AI receptionist for a dental practice handle emergencies?
It can recognise the urgent words you set, flag the call and put the caller through to the person you name. It does not give clinical advice, so write a clear instruction for true emergencies.
Will it work with our practice management software?
It does not read or write to practice management software. It books into its own calendar, can respect a Google Calendar you link, and takes messages for anything the desk should confirm.
Can it answer more than one call at once?
Yes. It handles several calls at the same time, up to the limit on your plan, which is 10 on Pro.
