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AI receptionist for dental practices

A dental front desk is chairside for half the day, so the phone rings out and the caller books somewhere else. This page prices the services that answer it: from $49 a month for message taking up to $395 a month for a human team, plus the two questions that decide the whole thing for a practice, booking and the BAA.

Every price below was read from the vendor's own pricing page in July 2026. Nothing here is an estimate. See the full table on the pricing index.

What calls does a dental practice actually miss?

Not the ones you think. Practices assume the problem is after hours. The bigger leak happens at 10:40 on a Tuesday, when the desk is turning over an operatory, running a payment and holding a lab on the other line.

• The toothache call after 5pm. Someone in real pain does not leave a voicemail. They call the next practice on the map, and whoever picks up gets the emergency exam, the radiograph and, often, the patient.
• The new patient call during a procedure. The one call that pays for the whole month arrives while both hands are busy. It rings four times and stops.
• The 10-minute insurance question. Benefits and coverage calls run long and block the line for everyone behind them. That is a billing problem too, because per-minute plans charge for every one of those minutes.
• The Monday morning voicemail pile. Weekend cancellations and reschedules sit unheard, so Monday opens with holes in the schedule that could have been filled Saturday.
• The Spanish-speaking caller when nobody at the desk speaks Spanish. Rosie and Dialzara include English and Spanish, Ruby and Abby Connect bundle Spanish on every plan, and PATLive sells it as a $20 a month add-on. Prices differ by a lot, so check this before you sign, not after.

What one missed call costs you here

A new dental patient is typically worth somewhere in the range of $600 to $1,200 over the first few years, counting the exam, radiographs, hygiene recall and whatever restorative work follows. That is a typical range to start from, not a fact about your practice. Pull your own production per new patient from your software and use that number instead.

The honest part most calculators skip: not every missed call is a lost patient. Most of your missed calls are existing patients, labs and reps. What matters is the small slice that are new. If you take 60 calls a week, miss 20 percent of them and one of those 12 is a new patient who would have booked, that is roughly one patient a week, or somewhere near $2,600 to $5,200 a month at the range above. Halve it if you want to be conservative. It is still more than any plan on this page.

Enter your own production per new patient in the third field. If the monthly figure lands under $49, you do not need any of this yet. Full version with the workings on the missed call calculator.

Which service fits a dental practice

Rosie, if you want booking without a receptionist salary

Rosie starts at $49 a month for 250 minutes, but that tier takes messages only. The plan that matters for a practice is Scale at $149 a month for 1,000 minutes, because that is where calendar booking and warm transfers to your desk appear. It covers English and Spanish. The gap in the data: Rosie does not publish an overage rate anywhere, so ask what a busy month costs before you commit. Check current Rosie pricing.

Goodcall, if your calls run long

Insurance verification and treatment plan questions are exactly the calls that punish a per-minute plan. Goodcall bills per unique caller instead: $79 a month for 100 unique customers on Starter, $129 a month for 250 unique customers on Growth, with unlimited minutes on both. A 12-minute benefits call costs the same as a 40-second one. Over the plan limit you pay $0.50 per extra unique caller. Watch the call retention: 7 days on Starter, 30 days on Growth. Check current Goodcall pricing.

Abby Connect, if you want to compare AI against people honestly

Nervous patients hear a bot and hang up. Abby Connect is the one vendor that publishes both ladders side by side, so you can see what the human option actually costs: AI from $99 a month, or real receptionists from $329 a month for 100 minutes, moving to $599 for 200 minutes with Calendly booking. Spanish is included on every plan, human or AI. The catch is real: no overage rate is published for any tier. Check current Abby Connect pricing.

Ruby, if you want the known name and will pay for it

Ruby runs $395 a month for 100 minutes and $720 a month for 200 minutes, with bilingual Spanish bundled and no setup fee. It is the most recognised brand here and it prices like it. Two things to know before you sign: minutes are billed in 60-second increments rounded up, so a run of short calls burns the plan faster than the minute count suggests, and the overage rate is not published on their page at all. Check current Ruby pricing.

Prices side by side

Prices verified July 2026. Compare all 17 vendors on the pricing index.

What to ask before you sign

1. Will you sign a BAA, and what does it cover? Ask in writing. A badge on a website is not an agreement. If the answer is vague, or the BAA sits behind an enterprise tier, price that tier, not the one on the homepage.
2. Does booking write into our schedule, or just email the desk? These are different products at the same price. Make them name your practice management software during the demo.
3. How is a 12-minute insurance call billed? Per-minute plans charge for all 12. Goodcall charges nothing extra for the length. This single question can be worth more than the plan difference.
4. What is the overage rate, in writing? Rosie, Ruby and Abby Connect all publish plans but no overage rate. That is the first minute past your bundle, and it is where the bill surprises you.
5. What happens on an after-hours emergency? Text the on-call dentist, transfer to a person, or take a message. Decide which one you need before you look at price.

Where to go next

If you also run a medical side or a specialist practice, the BAA and triage questions differ enough that we split them out: see AI receptionists for medical practices. If most of your calls are booking and rebooking rather than clinical, the pattern is closer to salons and spas, where short calls and repeat clients change which billing model wins. Every published plan sits in one table on the pricing index.