Services

An answering service for dentists

Your receptionist is checking a patient out, the second line is ringing, and the person on it has toothache. A real person picks up in the practice's name, takes the call by your rules and gives no clinical advice. It works beside your front desk, not in place of it. From £59 a month.

What does an answering service for dentists do that your front desk cannot?

It takes the call your front desk has no hands for. An answering service for dentists picks up the practice line, in the practice's name, when reception is busy with the patient standing at the counter, when the desk is closed for lunch, or before the doors open. The caller speaks to a person and you get the details by text and email.

It is not a replacement for the person who knows your patients. You choose when the line diverts: only when it is engaged, only when it goes unanswered, or only at the times nobody is at the desk. The rest of the day, nothing changes.

"Are you taking on NHS patients?"

If your practice gets asked this, you know how much of the desk's morning it can use. It has a short answer, and the answer is yours: yes, no, children only, a waiting list, private only, or a membership plan. Whatever it is today goes in your notes, and that is what callers hear, in the same words each time.

When the answer changes, you say so and the notes change with it. A caller is not told there might be space, or to try again next month, unless that is what you have asked for. Somebody who has rung six practices already is better served by a plain no than a hopeful maybe.

What happens when somebody rings in pain?

The caller is listened to, and what they say is written down as they said it: where it hurts, since when, any swelling, any bleeding, whether it followed a knock. Then your rules decide what happens next. Nobody on our side judges how serious it is, suggests a painkiller or says it can wait. Those are clinical decisions, and they stay with you.

What your rules can do is sort the call. You might say that swelling, bleeding after an extraction, a broken tooth in a child or a lost crown before a wedding each go to the top. On Growth and Premium, those callers can be booked into the emergency slots you hold back, or put through to the practice. On Light and Essential, the message reaches you marked urgent.

As an illustration, and not a real patient:

8.12am, pain. Existing patient. Name, date of birth, mobile.
In their words. "Lower left, at the back. Kept me up. My cheek feels bigger this morning."
Your rule. Swelling goes to an emergency slot.
Booked. 11.40 today, the slot you keep free.
Told. The time of the appointment, and nothing about the tooth.

There is one piece of public advice you may want in the script. The NHS says to go to A&E or call 999 for serious injuries to the face or jaw, or for heavy bleeding from the mouth that will not stop. If you want a caller describing either to be told that, it is written into your rules at setup.

What does a caller hear about prices?

The figures you have already published. The General Dental Council's standards say you must give patients clear information about costs, with a simple price list on display and clear prices in your practice literature and on your website. So the list exists, and a caller asking what a check-up, a hygienist visit or a private consultation costs can be read the figure from it.

What they are not given is a price for treatment nobody has examined them for. "How much to fix a broken tooth" is answered with the cost of the appointment that will find out, and nothing beyond it.

Who can be told about a patient's appointment?

The patient. The same standards treat a patient's personal details, what treatment they are having and how much it costs as confidential. On the phone, that means a partner asking what time an appointment is, or a relative asking what was done and what it came to, is not told. Their message is taken and passed to the practice, and the practice decides.

A patient ringing about their own appointment is a different matter. Cancelling, moving or confirming it is taken down in full, and from Growth it can be changed in your diary there and then, which gives you the freed slot back while there is still time to fill it.

Which plan suits a dental practice?

Count the calls first. Every plan has a monthly allowance, and a practice that already has a receptionist is only sending the overflow. Light is £59 with 30 calls included and Essential is £129 with 50. Either one gives you the call answered in business hours, your routine questions dealt with, and a written message each time.

Booking is the dividing line. Growth, £249 a month with 100 calls, is where appointments go into the diary during the call, new patients are asked your registration questions, urgent callers can be transferred and out-of-hours options begin. Premium, £399 with 150 calls, adds the calls going the other way: ringing patients back, following up, and two hours a month of admin.

One thing to settle before you choose: bookings are made in the calendar you share with us, and dental practice systems vary. Tell us which one you run and you will get a straight answer on whether we can book inside it. Prices, allowances and the setup fee, from £49.50 where it is normally £99, are all on plans and pricing.

How does a practice start?

With the seven-day trial, which is free and asks for no card. Pick an ordinary week, divert only the overflow, and read what comes back each evening. Our piece on the first week of an answering service sets out what to look for.

The general mechanics are on the telephone answering service page. If the practice also offers facial aesthetics, the page on answering for aesthetics clinics covers those calls. Questions go to 01709 222834, or through the contact page if writing is easier.

Common questions

What do callers hear when the practice is closed?

On Growth and Premium, which have out-of-hours options, a person can still answer and follow the instructions you leave for closed hours. For urgent dental problems the NHS tells people to call 111 or use 111 online, and that can be part of what a caller in pain is told. On Light and Essential your own closed message stays as it is.

A nervous patient wants to know what will happen at the appointment. What are they told?

The practical things from your notes: how long it takes, where to park, who they will see. Anything about the treatment itself is passed to you. The message says the caller is anxious, so whoever greets them on the day already knows.

Somebody wants to register the whole family. Can that be done in one call?

Yes. Each person's name and date of birth is taken, along with whether they are asking for NHS or private care, and anything else your registration form asks for. From Growth, first appointments can be booked together or back to back, whichever you prefer.

The dental lab rings about a case. What happens to that call?

The lab's name, the patient reference they quote, what they need and by when are sent to you straight away. If you have said lab calls should come through, they can be transferred on Growth and Premium. Sales calls from suppliers are logged and left for you.

A patient rings worried about bleeding after an extraction. Is that treated as urgent?

If your rules say so, and you set them. What the patient describes is recorded and reaches the practice at once, by transfer on Growth and Premium or as an urgent message on the smaller plans. No aftercare advice is given by us; the patient is told the practice will ring them, and when.

The rest of what we answer

Hear it for yourself, free, for a week.

Seven days of a real person answering in your business name. No card, no contract, and nothing to cancel if you'd rather not carry on.

Start your free trial Book a callback

Or call us on 01709 222834