AI receptionist for dental clinics
The practice is with a patient. The phone still rings.
Belline answers when the chair is occupied and after you close. It takes appointment requests only — the name, the number and when they would like to come — and it answers nothing clinical.
Answers in English.
By city
Where we have written it up.
Each page is about a dental practice's phone in that city — the week it keeps, the languages on the line and the calls it loses.
Dubai
Since January 2022 the federal public sector has worked Monday to Friday, with the weekend on Saturday and Sunday and a shortened Friday, and most of Dubai's private sector followed it.
Abu Dhabi
Monday to Friday, weekend on Saturday and Sunday, with a short Friday across the public sector.
Sharjah
Sharjah is the outlier.
London
Monday to Friday, with Saturday a full trading day for most consumer businesses and Sunday shorter.
Why the calls go missing
Nobody is ignoring the phone.
Dental clinics lose calls for reasons that have nothing to do with caring about them.
Surgery time is not phone time
A nurse chairside cannot break gloves to take a booking, and the practice manager is on the other line to a lab. The phone rings through a procedure with nobody able to reach it.
Pain calls arrive after you close
A toothache does not wait for nine in the morning. Somebody in real discomfort at nine at night either reaches an answering machine or rings somebody else.
A receptionist must not answer a clinical question
Is this normal after a filling, should I take another painkiller, is the swelling a problem. The only safe answer is a person who is qualified to give one, and getting that reliably right at eight in the evening is the hard part.
New patients ask for treatment, not an assessment
People ring asking to book a crown or a whitening. What they can actually book is an examination, and holding that line every time takes a front desk that is never rushed.
Where it stops
Knowing what not to say is the hard part.
Belline will not discuss a diagnosis, interpret a symptom, or advise on pain or medication. It is reception, not a clinician. Please do not use it for medical details: anything clinical, urgent or unclear goes to your team — as an urgent callback with the patient's number and no medical details taken down, or straight through to a person where your plan includes live transfer and you have given it a number.
How it works
Set up from what you already have.
Most of the work is checking what Belline found. You decide when customers reach it.
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Give Belline what you already have
Your website, price list or brochure. It reads them and drafts your services, prices, hours and the questions a dental practice gets asked every day.
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Check what it found
Fix anything wrong, fill the gaps, and set the rules it must hold. Nothing goes live until you have read it.
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Switch it on
Ring it yourself first. Then forward your line and paste one line of HTML into your website. Customers only reach Belline once you do.
Questions
What operators ask us.
Will it give clinical advice?
No, and it refuses out loud rather than hedging. Asked whether pain after a filling is normal, it says it is not able to advise, takes the patient's number without writing down what they described, and marks it urgent for your clinical team, who go through it with them.
What does it do with a patient in pain at night?
It takes the call rather than letting it ring out. It does not diagnose, it does not offer a slot, and it does not take down the symptoms. It takes the patient's number and marks the callback urgent for your clinical team. Where your plan includes live transfer and you have given it a team number, it puts the call through to a person instead — that is the line on the Growth card, not on every plan.
Can it book a treatment for a new patient?
It takes a request for an assessment, not for the treatment. A new patient asking to book a crown is asked in for an examination first, and told what that visit involves in the words you wrote.
Is it safe for patient information?
Treat it as reception, not as a clinical record. It should be used to take an appointment request — a name, a number and when somebody would like to come — and not for medical details. Transcripts are stored so you can see what was said, and Belline does not record the audio of the calls it answers. The one recording anywhere in the product is a voicemail a caller chooses to leave before you have switched Belline on, which the privacy policy describes.
Does it confirm the appointment time?
For a clinic, Belline takes appointment requests only, and your team confirms every one. It does not book a clinic appointment itself yet.
Can it quote our prices?
Only the ones you give it, in the words you wrote. An examination fee you have written down, it reads back. A treatment cost that depends on the examination, it does not guess at — it takes a message.
What if somebody rings with a medical emergency?
It stops trying to be reception. The caller hears the emergency instructions you have given Belline for your country — the ambulance number, or the nearest emergency department — and no appointment request is taken, because an appointment would be the wrong answer at that moment.
Will patients be told it is an AI?
If they ask, yes, plainly. Belline does not present itself as a member of your practice team.
