The call you miss at 4pm is a chair sitting empty on Thursday
Vandial answers when your front desk is checking someone out, booking someone else, or simply not there. It books and moves appointments in your real calendar, offers the gap a cancellation just made, and takes the weekend calls — without ever giving clinical advice.
From $99 a month · Robocalls are never billed
Incoming callPriya Raman“I chipped a tooth and it's the weekend.”
Booked — Mon 8:20, emergency slot, pain noted
- First to answer
- gets the emergency. A new patient does not leave a message and wait
- Every booking
- asked whether an earlier cancellation slot would help
- No advice
- clinical questions become a message for a clinician, never an answer
This is what your callers hear
The same receptionist a dental practice gets, answering as the trades we already run. Yours is in the middle — press play.
One dental call, and what it left behind
Answered on the second ring. Every field below was captured during the call — nobody typed it in afterwards.
“I chipped a tooth and it's the weekend.”
Classified0:14
- emergency appointment
- existing patient
Captured0:47
- chipped molar
- cold sensitivity
- OOH number sent
Booked0:56
- Mon 8:20
- Dr Ellis
- emergency slot
Booked — Mon 8:20, emergency slot, pain noted
Read the whole dental call, line by line
- 0:02Priya Raman: I chipped a tooth and it's the weekend.
- 0:05Vandial: That sounds unpleasant. Are you in pain right now, or is it more the look of it?
- 0:12Priya Raman: It's sharp when I drink something cold.
- 0:14Classified — emergency appointment · existing patient
- 0:21Vandial: We keep emergency slots at the start of Monday. I can give you 8:20 with Dr Ellis.
- 0:31Priya Raman: Is there nothing today?
- 0:34Vandial: The practice is closed today. If the pain becomes severe or there's swelling, please use the after-hours number — I'll text it to you.
- 0:47Captured — chipped molar · cold sensitivity · OOH number sent
- 0:56Booked — Mon 8:20 · Dr Ellis · emergency slot
Answered, understood, booked
One number, picked up on the second ring — at 2am, on a Sunday, while you're already working. By the time the caller hangs up, it is in your calendar.
It answers
Answered on the second ring while your front desk is checking a patient out — which is when a good proportion of your calls currently ring out.
- 0:00Incoming call
- 0:02Answered by Vandial2 rings
- 0:05“Hello, Marlow Plumbing.”
It understands
It works out whether this is routine, an emergency slot, or a new patient needing longer, and picks the right length with the right clinician.
- Job
- Water heater — leaking
- Where
- 14 Marlow Street
- Access
- Side gate, dog in yard
- Urgency
- Today if possible
- Still on
It books
Booked in your real calendar, confirmed by text, and added to the cancellation list if they wanted an earlier date.
Text to Dave · 13:01
You’re booked for today, 1–2pm. Reply R to move it.
It asks what you would ask
These are the questions the agent runs for dental practices, and the operational reason each one exists. Change them, add your own, or take them out — they are configuration, not code.
Are you an existing patient, or new to us?
New patients need a longer first appointment and a different form. Booking them into a check-up slot loses the practice half an hour.
Are you in pain, and how bad?
Decides whether this is an emergency slot or a routine one — without any attempt to work out what is wrong.
What are you booking — check-up, hygienist, or something specific?
Different appointment lengths and different clinicians. A hygienist booked into a dentist's calendar is a wasted slot at both ends.
Do you have a preferred dentist?
Continuity matters to patients more than practices expect, and rebooking them with a stranger is a common cause of a no-show.
Are you insured, or paying privately — and on a plan?
Decides the paperwork before arrival and prevents the conversation happening at the desk with a queue behind.
Would you like to be told if something sooner comes up?
The cancellation list is the highest-value thing a dental front desk maintains, and it is almost never offered on the phone.
More than a dental office answering service
An answering service takes a message and charges you for it. Vandial knows your prices, your patch and your diary — so it books the job, or puts a real emergency straight through to you.
It picks up out of hours, and while your line is busy
A dental front desk is the busiest two square metres in the practice, and every call that arrives while it is occupied either rings out or interrupts a patient. Vandial takes them all, including the ones at 7pm and the ones on Sunday.
It knows your prices, your patch and your hours
It reads your actual calendar, so it books the right length with the right clinician — a new patient exam is not a check-up and a hygienist is not a dentist. A wrongly booked slot costs the practice more than a missed call.
What it knows
New patient exam
$129, 30 minutes
Hygienist
$110
Emergency slots
8:00-8:40 daily
Plans accepted
Denplan, most insurers
What matters reaches you. The rest waits
When somebody cancels, the gap gets offered. The cancellation list is the most valuable thing a front desk keeps and the first thing that gets dropped on a busy day, so the agent offers it on every booking call and works it when a slot opens.
Your rule: if they say gas, flood or no heat — ring Sam, then me.
Every call written up, tagged and searchable
Every call recorded and summarised, so what a patient was told about a fee, a slot or an after-hours number is a matter of record rather than of memory.
Dave Whitfield · Sunday, 4m 12s
Water heater, leaking
Leaking from the base. Booked for Tuesday 1–2pm. Side gate open, dog in the yard. Asked whether the service call fee applies — told $99, waived on repair.
What it will never do
You are handing your phone to something that talks to your customers when you are not there. These are the lines it does not cross in dental, and the words it uses instead.
It gives no clinical advice, ever
It will not say whether a tooth can be saved, whether swelling is serious, whether to take painkillers, or what the treatment will be. It establishes urgency in order to choose a slot, and that is the entire extent of it. Anything clinical is a message for a clinician.
What it actually says
“I'm not able to advise on that — but I can get you in front of Dr Ellis first thing Monday, and I'll make a note of exactly what you've described.”
Out-of-hours emergencies get the right number, not a slot
Facial swelling, uncontrolled bleeding or severe pain outside opening hours are directed to your after-hours provider or to urgent care immediately, and the number is texted rather than read out. It does not offer a Monday appointment as an answer to a Saturday emergency.
What it actually says
“That's not something to wait until Monday with. I'm texting you the after-hours number now — please ring them today.”
It records what it needs and no more
The agent asks what is required to place a patient in the right slot with the right clinician: who they are, whether they are in pain, what they are booking. It does not solicit medical history, medication lists or clinical detail, because a booking call is not the place for it and a transcript is not the place to keep it.
What it actually says
“You don't need to go through the history with me — that's between you and the dentist. I've just noted that it's the upper left and it's sensitive to cold.”
The job lands where you already work
Google, Outlook, Apple, Exchange, CalDAV — whichever calendar you already keep. Then your payments, your CRM, and whatever you automate with.
…and a lot more besides
- Warm transfersWarm transfersAnnounced — who is calling and why, before you take the line.
- Spam never billedSpam never billedRobocalls are spotted, zero-rated, and never become a customer.
- A number per sourceA number per sourceVan, yard sign, Google listing — see which line brings the work.
- Team & on-callTeam & on-callTries you, then a second number, then whoever is on call.
- Run it by textRun it by textReply to a text to move a job, block a morning, clear a day.
- Clear a day, everyone toldClear a day, everyone toldCall off a wet Tuesday; every customer is told and re-offered.
- Never invents an answerNever invents an answerNo price or slot it was not given. It takes a message instead.
- Any trade, no codeAny trade, no codeGoal, questions and guardrails are settings, not a rebuild.
What dental practices say before they say yes
Three objections, in the words they are usually put in. Where the objection is right, it says so.
“Our front desk is fine. They answer the phone.”
They answer it when they are not checking a patient out, taking a payment, or booking somebody standing in front of them — and those calls do not ring back. It takes the ones arriving while the desk is occupied, plus the 7pm ones and the Sunday ones.
“It could book a new patient into a fifteen-minute slot.”
Not if it reads your calendar, which it does. New patient exams, hygienist visits and check-ups are different lengths with different clinicians, and it books against your real appointment types. A wrongly booked slot costs the practice more than the call was worth.
“I'm not having software give clinical advice.”
Nor are we. It will not say whether a tooth can be saved, whether swelling matters, or what a treatment involves. It establishes urgency to pick a slot, and an after-hours emergency gets your after-hours number texted to them rather than a Monday appointment.
Dental questions, answered
What dental practices ask before handing over their phone number — and what a dental office answering service can and cannot do for you.
Will it give patients clinical advice?
No, and that boundary is absolute. It will not say whether a tooth can be saved, whether swelling matters, or what a treatment involves. It establishes how urgent the appointment is so it can pick the right slot, and everything else is a message for a clinician.
What happens with a genuine after-hours emergency?
It directs the patient to your after-hours provider or to urgent care and texts them the number, rather than offering a Monday appointment. Facial swelling, uncontrolled bleeding and severe pain are not scheduling problems.
Can it book the right appointment type?
It reads your real calendar and books against your appointment types and clinicians — a new patient exam, a hygienist visit and a check-up are different lengths with different people. Booking a new patient into a fifteen-minute check-up costs you more than the call was worth.
Does it handle cancellations and the waiting list?
Yes, and this is where most practices see it pay for itself. It asks every patient whether they want an earlier slot if one appears, and when a cancellation lands it works that list by text rather than leaving the chair empty.
What patient information does it store?
What it needs to book: who they are, what they are booking, whether they are in pain, and their contact details. It does not solicit medical history, medication lists or clinical detail on a booking call. We make no compliance certification claims — what we can tell you is exactly what it asks for and what it refuses to.
Can it chase the patients who are overdue a recall?
Recalls and reminders go out by text on your schedule, and replies come back into the same record. Failed-to-attend follow-up works the same way, which is usually where a practice's easiest recovered revenue sits.
What does it cost?
Three paid rungs — Starter, Professional and Business — differing only in how many unique patients you answer for in a month. Call flows, clinicians and full call history are unlimited on all of them. Robocalls are identified and never billed.
Already decided you want AI to answer it?
Then the question is which one, and that is a different page: what a generic AI receptionist gets wrong on a dental call, and what is configurable about this one.
Not your trade?
The agent's questions, urgency rules, escalations and vocabulary are all configuration. Nothing about a trade is hard-coded, which is why there are 31 of these and not one.