You added LocalMed so patients could book online without calling, and plenty do. But the phone still rings all day, and most callers aren't the type who'll hang up and go book themselves on a webpage — they're a parent with a screaming toddler, an older patient who prefers to talk to a person, or a new patient with a question before they commit. It's 12:30, the desk is at lunch, and three of those calls roll to voicemail. Online booking handled the self-serve patients; the phone callers, who are often your highest-intent new patients, still slipped through.
DentalReception AI answers every one of those phone calls in under two rings and books the appointment live while the patient is still on the line — 24 hours a day. It picks up the patients LocalMed's online flow was never going to reach: the ones who call instead of click.
Books live, 24/7 — alongside LocalMed online scheduling
LocalMed gives patients a way to book themselves online. DentalReception AI covers the other half of the funnel: the patients who call. The two work toward the same goal — a full schedule with less manual front-desk work — from opposite ends. Online bookers self-serve through LocalMed; phone callers get answered and booked by DentalReception AI.
DentalReception AI connects via API and is designed to work alongside LocalMed and your scheduling stack so phone bookings and online bookings stay coordinated rather than colliding. (TODO: confirm integration depth — LocalMed is not one of our five confirmed real-time write-back PMS integrations, so we do not claim live, two-way write-back into LocalMed itself.) Where your practice schedules in a dental PMS, DentalReception AI offers deep real-time write-back into Dentrix, Open Dental, and our other confirmed integrations, so phone and online bookings draw from the same live availability.
What LocalMed users get
- Phone callers booked live — the patients who call instead of using online scheduling are answered in under two rings and booked on the call. See call answering.
- After-hours and lunch coverage — calls that hit voicemail while the desk is away are answered and booked 24/7. See after-hours answering.
- New-patient intake captured — name, callback number, reason for visit, and insurance details taken on the call. See new patient calls.
- Fewer double-bookings — phone bookings are coordinated with your live availability so a phone slot and an online slot don't land on the same time.
- Insurance questions answered — common coverage questions handled and details relayed to staff; the agent captures and routes, it does not guarantee coverage. See insurance verification.
How DentalReception AI connects to LocalMed
Setup is a forwarding change on your phone line: point your main or after-hours number to DentalReception AI, and phone callers are answered and booked immediately — no new hardware. The connection to LocalMed and your scheduling stack runs over a standard API so online and phone bookings stay in sync. See implementation and appointment scheduling for how bookings happen on the call.
You decide the scope: route only after-hours and overflow phone calls to the AI, or send every inbound call. LocalMed keeps serving the self-serve crowd; DentalReception AI captures the callers.
What it costs against what it saves
The phone callers LocalMed's online flow can't reach are often your most valuable new patients. By industry averages, a new dental patient is worth roughly $600–$1,200 in first-year production, and practices miss a quarter to a third of inbound calls — at lunch, after hours, and during Monday spikes. Covering that with another part-time front-desk hire runs about $2,500–$3,500 a month loaded, and an answering service that only takes a message still bills by the minute without ever booking anyone. DentalReception AI is a flat monthly subscription that answers every call and books it live — see pricing for the current rate, or run the numbers on the ROI calculator.
Before and after DentalReception AI
| Before DentalReception AI | With DentalReception AI + LocalMed | |
|---|---|---|
| Phone calls missed & after-hours | Roughly 1 in 3 unanswered (industry average) | Answered in under two rings, 24/7 |
| Patients who call, not click | Voicemail, often lost | Booked live on the call |
| Online bookings | Handled by LocalMed | Handled by LocalMed, coordinated with phone |
| When phone calls are booked | Later, after a callback | During the call |
| New-patient intake | Sticky note, if reached | Captured and structured on the call |
Every call is handled under a HIPAA-compliant setup with a signed BAA available — see security.
Frequently asked questions
Doesn't LocalMed already handle our bookings?
LocalMed handles the patients who choose to book online — but a large share of dental callers will always pick up the phone instead of filling out a web form, and those callers skew toward high-value new patients with questions. DentalReception AI answers those calls in under two rings and books them live, so you capture both the click-to-book and the call-to-book patients. The two cover different halves of the same funnel.
Will phone bookings collide with online bookings in LocalMed?
That's exactly what the connection is meant to prevent. DentalReception AI connects via API and is designed to coordinate phone bookings with your live availability so a phone slot and a LocalMed online slot don't land on the same time. (TODO: confirm integration depth — LocalMed is not one of our confirmed real-time write-back PMS integrations.) For practices scheduling in a dental PMS, the AI writes back live into that PMS, keeping one source of truth.
What happens to calls after hours or during lunch?
They get answered and booked. DentalReception AI runs 24/7, so a call at 9 p.m. or during the lunch-hour gap is answered in under two rings instead of going to voicemail, and the patient is booked on the call. Online scheduling can't reassure a hesitant new patient the way a real conversation can — the agent does that around the clock.
Is it HIPAA compliant?
Yes. DentalReception AI runs under a HIPAA-compliant setup with a signed BAA available, so patient details captured on a call are handled appropriately. Review the security page or see a live booking on a demo.