Dental answering service: your options, compared
When your team can’t pick up, someone or something has to. Here are the three ways UK practices cover missed calls, what each is good for, and what to check before you sign up.
The calls you miss are the ones you never hear about
A patient who can’t get through often rings the next practice instead. An answering service is about catching those calls.
Your team is with patients at the desk while the phone keeps ringing.
Calls after hours go to a message, and new patients rarely try again.
Without a log of missed calls, nobody knows how many enquiries slipped away.
Three kinds of dental answering service
Each one suits different practices. Here’s what each does, where it’s strong and what to ask.
A human answering service
Call handlers answer in your practice’s name, usually from a shared call centre, and pass on messages.
Good for: A real person on the line.
Ask about: How you’re charged (per call, per minute or a monthly bundle), what happens in a busy month, their hours, and whether they can see your diary.
An out-of-hours message or voicemail
A recorded message with your opening hours and NHS 111, sometimes with a voicemail box for call-backs.
Good for: Costs nothing and gives emergency guidance.
Ask about: Many callers hang up without leaving a message, and nobody sees who called until someone checks.
An AI receptionist
Answers when your team doesn’t, says it’s an AI, takes the caller’s details, texts your booking link and flags urgent calls.
Good for: Every call answered, day and night, for a fixed monthly fee.
Ask about: That it never gives clinical advice, always says it’s an AI, keeps your number, and comes with a data-processing agreement.
What to check with any provider
- A data-processing agreement, and where call recordings or transcripts are kept and for how long (UK GDPR)
- How emergencies are handled: NHS 111, 999 and your own out-of-hours number
- Whether you keep your existing practice number
- How you’re charged, and what a busy month would cost
- Contract length and notice period
- How messages reach your team, and how urgent calls are flagged
- Whether missed callers get a text with your booking link
- Whether callers are told when they’re speaking to an AI
Virtual Front Desk
An AI receptionist for UK dental practices. It answers when your team can’t, texts missed callers your booking link and sends your team a summary every morning.
- First 60 days free, no setup fee, no contract
- £149 a month per site after that, locked for 12 months if you book a call by 30 November (standard price £249)
- Calls and texts billed by Twilio at their rates, through your own account
- Always says it’s an AI receptionist and never gives clinical advice
- Keeps your number; transcripts deleted after 90 days; data-processing agreement signed
Questions practices ask
What is a dental answering service?
A service that answers your practice’s calls when your team can’t: at lunch, during the morning rush, after hours or when every line is busy. It takes messages, gives callers your basic information and passes enquiries back to your team.
How much does a dental answering service cost?
It depends on the type. Human answering services usually charge per call, per minute or a monthly bundle. AI receptionists usually charge a fixed monthly fee plus phone costs. Virtual Front Desk is free for the first 60 days, then £149 a month per site at the launch price (locked for 12 months if you book a call by 30 November; standard price £249), with calls and texts billed separately by Twilio through your own account.
Will patients know they’re speaking to an AI?
With Virtual Front Desk, yes, always. It introduces itself as your practice’s AI receptionist at the start of every call. Whichever service you choose, we’d ask for this.
What happens with dental emergencies?
An answering service shouldn’t give clinical advice. Virtual Front Desk points callers to NHS 111, your out-of-hours number or 999 when it’s an emergency, and flags the call for your team.
Can it book appointments into our diary?
Virtual Front Desk doesn’t book into your diary directly. It texts your existing online booking link, or takes the caller’s details for your team to ring back. Your booking software stays as it is.
Do we need a new phone number or phone system?
Not with Virtual Front Desk. You keep your number and phone system. Calls only reach the AI receptionist when your team doesn’t answer, or after hours.
Not sure which suits your practice?
Book a 15-minute call. We’ll look at when your calls go unanswered and tell you honestly whether an AI receptionist fits. No obligation.
Virtual Front Desk launch offer ends 30 November