I remember a conversation with a dental practice owner in Zlín. He told me: "Our receptionist is great. But when she's with a patient, she simply can't answer the phone. And that can go on for two hours." In that time, five or six calls slip through. Some of them are new patients. Those patients won't call back.
Dental practices have a specific phone problem. The receptionist can't be in two places at once — with the dentist and at the desk answering calls. The result: missed calls, frustrated patients, and lost revenue.
My name is Radim Kopp and I run VelixAI — an AI phone receptionist for businesses. In this guide, I explain exactly what an AI receptionist does for a dental practice, how setup works, and when it makes sense financially.
Why Phones Are the Biggest Pain Point for Dental Practices
Dental offices receive a huge volume of repetitive calls. Here's what takes up most of the phone time:
Types of Calls a Practice Receives
- Appointment bookings — the most common type. A patient wants a slot, the receptionist checks the calendar, they agree on a time.
- Cancellations and reschedules — the patient can't make it and wants a different time. Or they simply cancel.
- Questions about opening hours — "Are you open Friday afternoon?" or "Do you work during school holidays?"
- Questions about prices — "How much does teeth whitening cost?" or "Is a filling covered by insurance?"
- Questions about location — a new patient needs directions or wants to know if there's parking.
Every one of these calls looks almost identical to the previous one. The receptionist answers the same questions dozens of times a week. That's exactly the kind of work AI handles well.
When the Receptionist Can't Pick Up
The phone goes unanswered when she's:
- walking a patient to or from the treatment room
- handling admin work (payments, insurance, documentation)
- serving someone at the front desk
- the practice is closed — afternoons, evenings, weekends, public holidays
Yet evenings and weekends are precisely when many people finally have time to sort out personal appointments. They call after work. No one answers.
Example: A patient with a broken tooth calls on Sunday morning. The practice website says "for emergencies, call this number." They call. No answer. They call another practice — which picks up — and that patient never comes to you.
What an AI Receptionist Actually Does in a Dental Practice
The AI receptionist from VelixAI acts as the first point of contact for every inbound call. It doesn't write appointments into the calendar itself — your team does that. But it handles everything that comes before.
Answers Calls 24/7
Regardless of the time, day of the week, or public holidays. A call comes in, the AI picks up within three seconds. The patient won't hear a busy signal or reach voicemail.
Captures All the Information Needed
When taking a booking request, the AI asks for:
- the patient's name
- the type of treatment needed (check-up, filling, whitening…)
- preference for a specific dentist (if the practice has multiple)
- preferred day and time
- a contact phone number
Everything is logged and sent to reception as a clean summary. Your team then confirms and enters the appointment into the calendar.
Handles Cancellations Intelligently
This is the feature that brings real value to practices. When a patient wants to cancel, the AI first asks whether a different time slot might work for them. Many patients cancel simply because the original time no longer suits them — not because they don't want to come at all.
A rescheduled appointment is far better than an empty chair.
Answers Common Questions
Opening hours, pricing, location, parking, which insurance plans you accept — everything you configure, the AI can recite. The patient gets an answer immediately, without waiting on hold.
Note: The AI receptionist does not write appointments into your system itself. It acts as a filter and information collector. Your staff receives a complete record and confirms the booking. This is intentional — you keep full control over your calendar and the AI doesn't become a weak link in your process.
Automatic Pre-Fill of Practice Information
Setting up an AI receptionist for a dental practice is fast. When creating the assistant, you enter your website URL — and the system automatically pulls:
- opening hours (from your "Contact" or "Opening Hours" section)
- branch addresses
- list of dentists
- service offerings
What This Means in Practice
You don't have to fill in dozens of fields manually. The system takes information you already have on your website and uses it as the foundation of the assistant's knowledge base. It saves a significant chunk of setup time.
If the practice has two branches at different addresses, the AI distinguishes between them. A patient calling about the Vinohrady branch gets answers relevant to Vinohrady — not Dejvice.
How the Setup Works in Practice
Setup happens inside a guided wizard in the app. The full process has 10 steps and takes approximately 15 minutes.
Setup Steps
- Basic profile (practice name, contact details)
- Organisation setup
- Template selection — a dental-specific template is available with appropriate assistant behaviour
- Configuration (opening hours, dentists, services) — the automatic website import helps here
- Payment details — only needed before going live, not for exploring the product
- Phone number assignment — free, automatic
- Call forwarding setup
- Configuration review
- Test call — you call your own assistant number and hear exactly how it sounds and responds
- Activation
Step 9 Is the Key One
Before going live, you call your assistant yourself. You hear exactly what your patient will hear. Only once you're satisfied do you activate forwarding.
You won't end up in a situation where the assistant is running blind and you have no idea what it's telling your patients.
Sign Up Without a Credit Card
The entire setup wizard and testing process can be completed without payment details. You enter a credit card only when you want to add credit and launch the assistant into live operation.
Tip: If you want to hear the assistant before signing up, try the live demo directly on the VelixAI website. You call in and hear the AI receptionist in real time.
Costs and Comparison With a Human Receptionist
AI Receptionist Pricing
Pricing runs from 4 to 8 CZK per minute of call, depending on the plan. Billing is per second — you pay for the exact duration of each call, with no rounding up to full minutes.
The phone number is free and assigned automatically. No monthly fees, no subscriptions. See the current pricing.
Comparison of Options
| Solution | Monthly Cost | Availability | Missed Calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human receptionist | 35,000–45,000 CZK | Working hours | 15–30% |
| AI receptionist | from ~2,000 CZK | 24/7/365 | Near 0% |
| Voicemail | 0 CZK | Always | 100% (no one calls back) |
The figures in the "human receptionist" row are indicative and depend on your specific situation. But the key difference isn't just cost — an AI operates during hours when the practice is closed. That's coverage a human receptionist structurally cannot provide.
One Saved Patient Covers Months of Operation
The average dental patient spends thousands of CZK per year. A single new patient who would otherwise have called a different practice pays for many months of AI receptionist operation many times over. The math is straightforward.
When an AI Receptionist Isn't Enough — and When It Is
I like to be straight about this. An AI receptionist isn't the right fit for every situation.
When AI Isn't Enough
- Urgent situations — a broken tooth, acute pain. The patient needs to speak with a person or be quickly transferred to a dentist. The AI can transfer the call, but the urgency itself calls for human contact.
- Complex administrative queries — specific insurance cases, complicated documentation questions.
- Emotionally difficult situations — a patient with severe dental anxiety. The empathy of a human voice is irreplaceable here.
Where AI Excels
- Routine bookings — around 80% of a dental practice's call volume consists of standard bookings and reschedules. The AI handles these perfectly.
- Outside working hours — evenings, weekends, public holidays. Exactly when the human receptionist isn't there.
- Peak load periods — Monday mornings, the day after a holiday. When five patients call at once and one line can't keep up.
- Repetitive questions — opening hours, pricing, address. The AI answers these faster and more consistently than any human.
Example: A dental practice with one receptionist and three dentists receives 30–50 calls per day. Roughly two-thirds of those are routine bookings and standard questions. The AI receptionist covers this majority. The receptionist can focus on patients at the front desk, insurance matters, and more complex cases.
Frequently Asked Questions From Dental Practices
The FAQ page has detailed answers. Here's a summary of what practices ask most often:
Do I Have to Change My Phone Number?
No. Patients call your existing number — the same one they have in their phone or on your website. You set up call forwarding in the wizard. Patients never see or know the assistant's number.
What Languages Does the Assistant Support?
Five languages: Czech, Slovak, English, Russian, and Ukrainian. It recognises the language automatically based on how the patient starts speaking.
Calendar Integration?
The assistant connects with Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and xDent — a system designed specifically for dental practices. The integration links directly to your existing patient management system.
What If Credit Runs Out?
The call ends. I recommend setting up automatic top-up — you choose a balance threshold and a refill amount, and the app tops it up automatically. You don't have to monitor the balance manually.
Want to try it? Setting up a VelixAI AI receptionist for your dental practice takes about 15 minutes. Registration is free and requires no credit card — you add payment details only when you're ready to go live.
Every call you pick up that you would have previously missed is a patient who would have called somewhere else. That's worth taking a look at.
