Open Dental stays your practice management system, your schedule and your source of truth. This is an add-on that reads and writes through Open Dental's API in real time. It is not a replacement and not a migration.
We generate an API key for your office. You paste it into Open Dental under Setup > Advanced Setup > API, using Add Key. The API runs through Open Dental's eConnector service on your server. Most offices that use Open Dental's eServices already have it. Check that it shows 'Installed, Running' in Open Dental's Service Manager (Tools > Misc Tools > Service Manager). If it isn't installed, it has to be set up first. We test the key and you're connected. Nothing is installed on your workstations, and there is no database connection, VPN or port forwarding. We don't ask you to change how you run Open Dental, though offices on a much older version may need to update for some API features. You can disable the key from inside Open Dental whenever you want.
The AI picks up the calls you route to it: after hours, overflow when the front desk is busy, a second line, or whichever lines you choose. It answers hours, location, insurance and new-patient questions with the answers you give it. It looks the caller up in Open Dental by name or phone number, or starts a chart for a new patient, then finds open time. It checks that time live against Open Dental before booking. The appointment is written to your schedule shortly after the caller agrees to it, usually within a minute. It goes in at the length of the appointment type (or the length of that patient's last similar visit), using a time pattern shaped like your own appointments, in the operatory that provider is usually booked in. If your eConnector can't be reached at that moment, the booking is kept and retried, not lost. If a booking can't be written at all, for example because no chart could be matched, it goes to your front desk instead of being dropped.
When a caller cancels, the AI goes over your cancellation policy if you have one. It then breaks the appointment in Open Dental (status Broken) without sending it to the Unscheduled List, and your office is notified. When a caller reschedules, it books the new time with the same operatory, length and appointment type, and the same provider unless the caller asks for a different one. It then replaces the original appointment's note with a 'moved to <date>' line and breaks it, so any note your team had on the original is overwritten. On a moved cleaning, the hygienist isn't copied to the new appointment yet, so re-assign it in the Appointments module. You can limit which visits the AI moves itself. Turn on the setting and it moves only new-patient, cleaning, emergency and consult visits, and hands anything else, like a crown prep or root canal, to your front desk. You choose the list. With the setting off, the AI can reschedule any appointment type. Clinical questions and billing disputes are passed to your team rather than answered. For a dental emergency it books an emergency visit, and after hours it follows the emergency contact steps you set.
Setup is an API key and a phone number, not a migration. We issue the key, you paste it into Open Dental's API setup and confirm the eConnector shows as running in Open Dental's Service Manager, and we connect. Then you forward the line you want covered: a tracking number, your after-hours line, or overflow from your main number. We load your hours, providers, appointment types and lengths, scheduling preferences and the answers your team already gives, and you can place test calls before you forward a live line. The AI Receptionist is $499.99 a month flat, month to month, with a 14-day trial and a BAA. There is no data migration, no conversion and no software on operatory machines.
No. Open Dental stays where it is and stays your source of truth. This connects to it over Open Dental's API and writes into the schedule you already use. There is no data migration and no second schedule to reconcile.
Yes. To cancel, it uses Open Dental's Break action, so the appointment is marked Broken, is not sent to the Unscheduled List, and your office is notified. To reschedule, it books the new time first, keeping the operatory, length and appointment type and, unless the caller asks otherwise, the provider. Then it replaces the original appointment's note with a 'moved to <date>' line and breaks it. Booking first means a caller is never left without a visit if something fails partway. You can turn on a setting so the AI moves only new-patient, cleaning, emergency and consult visits and sends other appointment types to your front desk. You choose the list. With the setting off, it can move any appointment type.
No. The AI breaks the appointment without sending it to the Unscheduled List, so it is marked Broken rather than parked on the list. If your office works the Unscheduled List for follow-up, keep that in mind when you review cancellations.
The AI receptionist doesn't confirm appointments on inbound calls. With appointment reminders, when a patient confirms by replying to a reminder text, using the email confirm link, or on the optional automated confirmation call, we set the appointment's Confirmed status to your office's own confirmed setting. We look that setting up in your Open Dental definitions the first time it's needed. The confirmation text replaces the appointment's Note field. Our schedule view also reads the Confirmed status from Open Dental, so confirmations your front desk sets there show on our side too.
It looks for openings in a copy of your schedule that refreshes every 15 minutes. When the caller has picked a provider and Open Dental is reachable, it checks that provider's time live right before confirming. If the slot was just taken, it offers another time. The check is on the provider, not the chair, so a phone booking can share an operatory with another provider's patient. If your eConnector is down at that moment, the booking is held and written once it's back, without that last live check, so your team should look over bookings made during an outage.
The length of the appointment type the caller booked, or the length of that patient's last similar visit when we have it. The time pattern is shaped like your own appointments, so doctor and assistant time look the way your team books them. The provider is the one the caller was booked with. The operatory is the one that provider is most often booked in, based on your own recent Open Dental appointments. Reschedules keep the original appointment's length and operatory.
No. It uses Open Dental's API only, with a key that you add in Open Dental and can disable there at any time. There is no direct database connection. Open Dental bills its API access fee to us as the developer, not to your office.
Open Dental's API runs through the eConnector on your server, so when the eConnector is down nothing can be written to Open Dental. The AI still takes the call and records the booking. The write to Open Dental is retried every few minutes for up to 48 hours, and your office gets an email if it keeps failing, so someone can enter it by hand. Your dashboard shows the last time it answered. Leave the server on overnight so after-hours bookings and nightly updates go through.
We haven't verified it with an Open Dental Cloud office yet. If you're on Open Dental Cloud, talk to us before you start the trial and we'll confirm the API connection with you first.
The request goes to your team with what the AI collected: who the caller is, what they asked for, and a callback number. Someone can pick it up from there instead of working from a voicemail box. Clinical questions, billing disputes, emergencies and anything the caller asks to escalate are passed on, not answered.
You can keep them. This does not require turning eServices off. There is some overlap, since we also do intake forms, reminders and texting, but whether to consolidate is a decision to make after you've seen both running, not on day one.
We sign a BAA, and PHI is encrypted at the field level at rest. Access is limited to your practice, and the Open Dental API key stays yours to disable at any time.
If you run Open Dental and you're losing calls, you don't have to switch systems. This answers the phone, answers the common questions, and books new appointments into your live Open Dental schedule at the length of the appointment type, in that provider's usual operatory. It also cancels and reschedules there through Open Dental's API. Anything clinical, financial or unclear goes to a person.
Open Dental is a trademark of Open Dental Software, Inc. Intake.Dental is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Open Dental Software, Inc.
You keep Open Dental. This answers the phone when your front desk can't and handles the questions your team gets asked most: hours, location, insurance accepted, new patients. It books new appointments into your live Open Dental schedule at the length of the appointment type, with the provider the caller chose. It cancels by breaking the appointment in Open Dental and reschedules by booking the new time and breaking the old one, both through Open Dental's API. Clinical questions, billing disputes and anything it isn't sure of go to your team.
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