AI receptionist and patient booking for dental practices using Open Dental
Turn more patient inquiries into booked appointments.
PracticeLift answers patient calls, website chats, and texts, books the visit types you approve, and tracks who actually comes in.
Demonstration with a fictional patient: Maple Street Dental texts Jordan, who asks about Thursday. PracticeLift checks the schedule, offers three open times, and the chosen time is added to the schedule. You can pick a different time with the buttons in the conversation.
Checking Thursday for new patient openings
Shaded blocks are existing appointments. Only openings that match the office's rules for new patient visits are offered.
Where booking breaks down
Even a busy, capable front desk can miss inquiries. It tends to happen in three places.
-
Calls nobody can pick up
The phone rings during check-out, at lunch, or after hours. Some callers leave a voicemail. Others try the next office.
-
Conversations that stop short
A patient asks about insurance or openings by text or chat, gets an answer but no time, and the thread goes quiet.
-
Patients who mean to book
The new patient who said they'd call back. The cleaning that's overdue. Some patients just need another prompt.
PracticeLift answers each of these the same way: by offering a real time from your schedule while the patient is still in the conversation.
Four ways in. One schedule.
Calls, online booking, website chat, and texts follow the same office rules and book into the same Open Dental schedule. Pick one to see it work.
Calls answered when your team can't.
PracticeLift answers when the front desk is busy, at lunch, and after hours. It books the appointment types you allow and hands everything else to your team with a short summary.
You choose when it answers
- Overflow
- Your team answers first. PracticeLift picks up after the number of rings you set.
- Lunch and after hours
- Patients reach someone who can book, instead of your voicemail.
- Every call
- PracticeLift answers first and transfers to your team whenever a person is needed.
You also decide which calls always go to a person, like clinical questions, urgent pain, or billing.
Tuesday, 12:24 PM. Front desk at lunch.
- PracticeLift
Thanks for calling Maple Street Dental. This is the virtual assistant. How can I help?
- Caller
Hi, I'm looking for a new dentist. Are you taking new patients?
- PracticeLift
We are. A new patient visit includes an exam, X-rays, and a cleaning, about an hour. Do mornings or afternoons work better?
- Caller
Mornings, later this week if possible.
- PracticeLift
I have Thursday at 8:30 or Friday at 9:00. Which would you like?
- Caller
Friday at 9, please.
- PracticeLift
You're booked for Friday at 9:00 AM. I'm texting you the new patient forms now.
Online booking that follows your rules.
Patients pick a real opening from your schedule, day or night. You decide which visit types, providers, and hours are open to online booking.
This booking demo uses an illustrative schedule. Nothing you enter is sent or saved.
Answer website questions. Offer an approved appointment.
Add AI chat to your practice website. Visitors get a plain answer and a real opening from your schedule, without waiting for a callback.
- Hi! I'm Maple Street Dental's virtual assistant. I can answer questions or find you an appointment. What can I help with?
- Answers from your office's own information
- Hours, new patient visits, services, and general insurance questions, in your team's words.
- Books the visits you approve
- Offers real openings from your Open Dental schedule, with the same rules as your phone line and booking page.
- Hands off when it should
- Tooth pain, clinical questions, and billing go to your team with a short summary.
- Works after hours
- A visitor at 10 PM gets an answer and a time, not just a contact form.
This demo uses a scripted assistant and fictional office details. Nothing you choose is sent or booked.
Text follow-up that helps patients book.
When an inquiry stalls, PracticeLift follows up by text, asks what works for the patient, checks your schedule, and books the visit. Patients reply in their own words.
- Texts only patients who contacted your office or agreed to texts
- Stops when a patient opts out, and hands off when they ask for a person
- Your team can read any conversation and take over
- Tue 6:48 PMTaylor asks about a cleaning on your website form
- Tue 6:49 PMText sent with an offer to find a time
- No replyFollow-up set for the next morning
- Wed 9:00 AMFriendly follow-up sent
- Wed 12:31 PMTaylor shares when they're free
- Right awaySchedule checked for matching openings
- Wed 12:31 PMTwo times offered
- Wed 12:33 PMTaylor picks one. Booked into Open Dental.
Website form, Tue 6:48 PM
“Need a cleaning. Do you take my insurance?”
No reply yet
Before 9 AM, or 4 PM and later
See which inquiries became patients.
Calls, chats, bookings, and texts are followed from first contact to a booked visit, and then to whether the patient came in.
- By source
- Phone, website chat, online booking, text follow-up, and ads, side by side.
- Through to the visit
- Booked isn't the finish line. See which visits were attended and which are still upcoming.
- What still needs a person
- Callbacks and stalled conversations stay visible until someone follows up.
| Patient | Came from | What happened | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Priya N. | Phone, at lunch | Booked a cleaning | Attended |
| Alex K. | Google Ads, then online booking | Booked an aligner consult | Attended |
| Taylor B. | Website form, then text follow-up | Booked a new patient visit | Thursday |
| Dana W. | Phone, before hours | Moved a cleaning | Thursday |
| Marcus T. | Website chat | Asked about implants, sent to your team | Callback due |
| Riley S. | Google Business Profile call | No time chosen yet, follow-up text set | Following up |
Showing 6 of 6 inquiries
Optional add-on: marketing that brings in more inquiries.
Add it if you want help finding new patients. New inquiries feed the same booking flow and report.
- Practice website
- Mobile-friendly, with online booking and AI chat built in.
- Google Ads
- Search campaigns for the services and neighborhoods you choose.
- Local SEO
- Google Business Profile, local pages, and steady review requests.
Set up around your office.
There's no new scheduling system to learn. We configure PracticeLift around your schedule, your rules, and your team.
-
Learn your scheduling rules
We walk through your appointment types, providers, operatories, new patient limits, and the calls that should always reach a person.
From your team: a working session with whoever runs your schedule.
-
Configure and test
We set up call handling, online booking, website chat, and text follow-up to match. Your team places test calls and test bookings before anything goes live.
From your team: test calls, test bookings, and a sign-off.
-
Launch and measure
Turn on the channels you're ready for. Then see which inquiries booked, which patients showed up, and which still need a follow-up.
From your team: a short review after launch to adjust the rules.
Does PracticeLift work with Open Dental?
Yes. PracticeLift is built for practices that schedule in Open Dental. It looks for openings in your Open Dental schedule and books only the appointment types, providers, and times you approve, so new appointments show up where your team already works.
Can we keep our existing phone number?
Yes. Patients keep calling the number they already know. During setup we decide together when PracticeLift answers: after a set number of rings, during lunch and after hours, or first on every call with transfers to your team.
Can you add the chat to our current website?
Yes. The chat can be added to the website you already have, or built into a new site if we design yours. Either way, it follows the same booking rules as your phone line and online booking, and it hands questions it can't answer to your team.
What happens when a patient needs a person?
PracticeLift hands off anything outside your rules, like clinical questions, urgent pain, billing, or a patient who simply asks for staff. Depending on the time of day, it transfers the call or creates a callback with a short summary, so your team doesn't start from scratch.
Can we control what gets booked, and when?
Yes. You choose which appointment types can be booked, with which providers and operatories, during which hours, and how far ahead. You can cap new patient visits per day, keep certain procedures phone-only, and protect blocks of time you want to keep open.
How does it know which patient it's talking to?
Before changing an existing appointment, PracticeLift confirms who it's speaking with, for example with a date of birth, and matches that to the patient in Open Dental. If there isn't a clear match, it hands the request to your team instead of guessing.
What if the time is taken before the patient confirms?
PracticeLift checks that the opening is still free right before it books. If someone else just took it, the patient is offered the next openings. If a booking can't be completed, your team gets the details so the request isn't lost.
What if no one is available for a handoff?
If a transfer isn't answered, PracticeLift takes a message, writes a short summary, and creates a callback for your team, marked urgent when it needs to be.
What does onboarding involve?
A working session to map your scheduling rules, a configuration and testing period where your team places test calls and test bookings, and a launch on the channels you're ready for. We'll lay out the timeline for your office on the demo call.
Which parts are available today?
PracticeLift is an early-stage service. On the demo call, we'll tell you which parts are ready for your office now and which are still in development, and we'll only set up what's ready.
How is patient information handled?
PracticeLift uses the details a patient shares to book or route their request, and your team can review each conversation. On the demo call, we'll walk through what's stored, where it's kept, and who can access it.
Do patients know they're talking to an AI?
Yes. PracticeLift introduces itself as your practice's virtual assistant, and patients can ask for a person at any time.
See it with a schedule like yours.
A short walkthrough of calls, website chat, online booking, and text follow-up, using visit types like yours.
- How booking would follow your rules
- Which calls and chats would go to your team
- What setup involves for your office