Conversations That Feel Human
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The Problem
Why Dental Practices Are Moving to an AI Answering Service
Patients call about appointments, insurance coverage and dental emergencies long after your front desk closes, and a missed call after hours often means the next call goes to the practice down the street. A traditional dental answering service can pick up, but it charges per call, relies on operators reading from a general script, and can't tell a routine reschedule from a knocked-out tooth that needs care within the hour. Retell operates under a signed BAA, checks your schedule and knowledge base to give real answers, and follows the escalation rules your practice sets to get urgent calls to your on-call dentist right away. It doesn't diagnose or make a clinical judgment call. It captures what the patient describes and routes it the way your practice decides.
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Comparison
Retell VS. A Traditional Dental Answering Service
Hours
What You Pay For
Wait Time
Busy Periods
Consistency
Languages
Handing Off To You
Setup
Your Tools
Traditional Answering Service
Business hours, with after-hours coverage billed as a separate add-on
Per minute and per call, plus a monthly contract and hold time
Callers hold while an operator becomes free
Limited by how many operators are on shift; calls queue or drop
Depends on which operator answers and whether they know a dental emergency from a routine call
Usually English, other languages billed extra or unavailable
Takes a message and calls your on-call dentist with limited detail on how urgent it is
Sign a contract, write call scripts, train operators on your practice
Messages relayed by phone, page or fax
Every call answered 24/7, including nights, weekends and holidays
Usage-based from $0.07/min, $10 in free credits to start
Answered on the first ring, no queue
20 concurrent calls included, higher on Enterprise
The same escalation questions asked every time, based on your practice's own rules
55+ languages handled the same way
Warm transfer or alert with the full transcript, including what the patient described
Start from a template, sync your knowledge base, go live
Connects to your practice management and scheduling systems over secure webhooks and acts during the call
Cost per minute
$0.07-$0.31/min
LLM: gpt-5
$0.040/min
TTS: platform
$0.015/min
Voice Engine
$0.055/min
Background speech removal
$0.005/min
Safety Guardrails
$0.005/min
Buyer’s Guide
How to Choose a Dental Answering Service
$0.07-$0.31 Per Minute
You pay for real call time, nothing else.
$10 in Free Credits
Try it before you pay anything.
No Monthly Retainers
Nothing extra for nights, weekends or busy periods.
Lower Bills Overall
Routine calls clear on their own, so spend drops.
Capabilities
What Our Agent Does on a Call
Handles Patient and Emergency Calls the Right Way:
It answers scheduling, insurance and treatment cost questions using your practice's own information, with no phone tree to navigate.
It gathers what the patient describes about a dental emergency, a broken tooth, severe pain or a knocked-out tooth, and follows the escalation rules your practice sets instead of making a clinical judgment call.
When a patient needs a person, the agent warm-transfers them with the full conversation and caller details attached.
Answers from Your Practice's Knowledge Base:
It stays in sync with your knowledge base, so patients hear current answers about hours, providers and insurance accepted.
It can look up a patient's appointment or account mid-call and tailor what it says.
It connects to your scheduling and practice management tools over secure webhooks while the call is live, and runs under a signed BAA with SOC 2 Type II controls.
Setup
Live in Four Steps
Step 1
Build
Set the agent up in a no-code dashboard or with the API, and point it at your scheduling system and practice FAQs.
Step 2
Test
Run it against the calls your practice actually gets and confirm it answers correctly and escalates cleanly.
Step 3
Deploy
Connect your practice line over SIP trunking or take a new number, then go live on voice, SMS and chat.
Step 4
Monitor
Track resolution and escalation rates and patient sentiment from the dashboard, and refine over time.
Value
Why Businesses Choose Retell
A Clean Handoff to Your Team
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Reporting You Can Act On
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Built for Sensitive Data
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- Hubspot
- Twilio
- Vonage
- Go High Level
- n8n
- Zapier
- Salesforce
- Hubspot
- Twillio
- Vonage
- Go High Level
- 8n8
- Zapier
- Salesforce
- Avaya
- Genesys
- Five9
- Amazon Connect
- Telnyx
- Make
- Cal.com
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- Avaya
- Genesys
- Five9
- Amazon Connect
- Telnyx
- Make
- Cal.com
Overview
Built to scale with you
From quick-start simplicity to enterprise-grade security, compliance, and support. Retell meets you wherever you are.
Put Your Business Answering Service to Work Today
Start from a template, sync your knowledge base, and connect your line or take a new number. Try it on your real calls, then go live on voice, SMS and chat.
FAQ
Common Questions
How does Retell handle a dental emergency call?
Retell asks the questions your practice wants asked, like whether a tooth was knocked out, broken or causing severe pain, and follows your practice's own escalation rules from there. It doesn't diagnose or make a clinical judgment call. It captures what the patient describes and gets it to your on-call dentist the way you've set up.
Is Retell HIPAA-compliant for dental practices?
Yes. Retell operates under a signed BAA with SOC 2 Type II controls, the same standard that applies to any healthcare provider handling protected health information, including dental practices.
Can Retell verify insurance or answer coverage questions?
Retell can answer common insurance questions using your practice's own information, like which plans you accept, and can look up a patient's account mid-call. For anything that needs a live check with the insurer, it schedules a callback or transfers to your team.
How much does a dental answering service cost with Retell?
Retell is usage-based from $0.07/min, with $10 in free credits to start. There's no monthly contract or per-call fee.
Does Retell answer calls in languages other than English?
Yes. Retell handles 55+ languages the same way it handles English, so patients don't need to wait for a bilingual staff member.
How fast can we set up Retell for our practice?
Most practices go live within days. Start from a template, sync your scheduling system and practice FAQs, test it against your real calls, then go live.
Can Retell transfer a patient to a real person?
Yes. When a patient needs a person, Retell warm-transfers the call with the full conversation and caller details attached, so your team isn't starting from scratch.
