Updated November 2, 2026Advertiser Disclosure
The short answer
An AI dental receptionist is software that answers your office’s phone when your team can’t, talks with the patient, and books the visit or passes the call along. There’s no single winner here, because a one-dentist office and a group of ten offices need different things. Only Weave AI Receptionist answers all six needs that decide this list, and it sells by quote. BuzzWisely leaves two unanswered and Dentina one, and both publish their prices and book into the practice software most offices run. Viva AI also sells phone service, and TrueLark handles calls and texts together. Before you sign anything, get three things in writing: a signed HIPAA agreement, what happens to a patient in an emergency, and how you get out.
Prices checked November 1, 2026 on each company’s own website.
Nobody buys a rank here. We place every company using our own scoring system, built on many factors, from what real customers tell us to what the contract asks of you. That’s our verdict, but yours is the one that counts. The best choice is the one that fits your company, and we’re here to help you find it.
See what offices really use an AI receptionist for, what an ordinary day looks like, and what all the phone words mean.
What it’s forA pediatric office, an orthodontist and a group of ten offices all need something different. Find yours and see who suits it.
Find my fitOne table with the order, who each company fits, the price and our grades on what matters most.
The 5-minute briefAn AI dental receptionist picks up when nobody at your office can. You know the moment. Your hygienist is mid-cleaning, you’re numbing a patient, and your front desk person is checking someone out while two lines blink. The phone rings a fifth time and stops. That caller might have been a new family looking for a dentist, or someone with a broken tooth who needed to hear a voice, and many callers won’t leave a message. They just try the next office on the list.
You probably aren’t looking for a technology project. You want the phone answered, the schedule filled, and your team able to look up at the patient in front of them. You also can’t afford a mistake here, because a dental phone call isn’t like a call to a plumber. The person on the line may tell the software their name, their insurance and what hurts, and that makes it patient information under HIPAA, the federal health privacy law. So this is a purchase where the contract matters as much as the features.
This guide compares eight options by fit, from a brand-new one-dentist office to a group with many locations. You’ll see the prices, what each company publishes about emergencies and 911, what it takes to leave, and what still needs a written answer. Where a company’s pages don’t settle something, we write “Ask before you sign,” which means exactly that and nothing worse. If a word sounds like software talk, we explain it where it appears, and our list of phone words in plain English is there whenever you need it.
The 5-minute brief on AI dental receptionists
Among AI dental receptionists, BuzzWisely and Dentina give a single office a published price and booking into its practice software, TrueLark handles calls and texts together, and Smith.ai stays here only for calls with no patient information. Five of the eight publish prices, from $79 a month billed annually. TrueLark, Weave AI Receptionist and Arini sell by quote, which means you can’t see a price without talking to sales.
| Option | Best fit for | Plan to start with | Price | Customer review ratings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1BuzzWisely | A published price and live booking | Nectar | $289 monthly | Not enough information |
| #2Dentina | Up to 3 providers, unlimited calls | Standard | $299 annual | Not enough information |
| #3Weave AI Receptionist | Practices already on Weave | Voice and messaging | By quote | Not enough information |
| #4My AI Front Desk | Light call volume, once the agreement is confirmed | Business-in-a-Box | $79 annual | Not enough information |
| #5TrueLark | Calls and texts handled together | AI receptionist, voice and messaging | By quote | Not enough information |
| #6Viva AI | AI and phone service from one company | Gold or Unlimited | $349 monthly | Not enough information |
| #7Arini | Outbound recall, once the agreement is confirmed | AI Patient Engagement | By quote | Not enough information |
| #8Smith.ai | General calls only, no patient information | AI Receptionist Pro | $150 monthly | Not enough information |
Our grades for a dental office
A demo always sounds good. It won’t tell you what happens the day you try to cancel, or whether the software will book into the system your team uses all day. So we graded each company on the seven things that decide whether you’ll be glad you signed or sorry you did, the way a report card would.
These grades are for dental offices, and we only give a grade where the evidence holds up. Right now, none of the eight has enough recent customer reviews to tell us how customers feel, so Happy customers reads “Not enough information,” and all eight show “Fewer reviews so far” under their names, which means a company’s place could move as more reviews come in. Other grades read the same way where too little is published or a company’s terms couldn’t be read. That never counts against anyone, and we’d rather show a gap than guess. A Good doesn’t mean perfect, and a Poor doesn’t mean a bad company. It means this is where you should slow down and look closer.
The report card: AI dental receptionists
Scroll inside the card to see all 8
Grade details
BuzzWisely
Nectar is $289 a month and Honey is $389, with $0 setup on every plan and a 10-day trial for $5. Taxes and any extra minutes or numbers come on top, and its Hive plan for groups is by quote.
It has a public status page listing eight parts of the service, and its log showed no incidents in the last 90 days. Its Terms promise best effort, with no uptime guarantee or credit.
Role-based access limits who sees what, and logs record logins and changes, with exports. Setup is $0 by screen share. A searchable help center isn’t published, and its setup times differ from page to page.
Billing is month to month, and the site states you can cancel anytime with no penalty. How to cancel and how much notice it takes aren’t published, and the pricing page and Terms differ on refunds.
For dental offices, it books during the call into Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, DSN and Dolphin, and anyone who asks for a person gets one. A signed HIPAA agreement is listed on every plan. A staffed support phone line and getting your data out after canceling aren’t published.
Grade details
Dentina
Standard is $299 and Premium is $399 a month, billed annually, a flat price per location for up to 3 providers. Calls are unlimited, and there’s a 30-day free trial.
It says you’re live in about 3 days, with no setup fee and forwarding set up with your office on day one. Staff roles, audit logs and a success manager sit on a higher plan, and a searchable help center isn’t published.
It lists a support phone number, plus email and chat support. Hours and a response time aren’t published.
A monthly option is shown, but how much notice canceling takes isn’t published. Its homepage and Terms don’t match on refunds, so get that in writing.
It names more practice systems than anyone here, and bookings write back to your schedule. But reaching a live person and emergency forwarding start on Premium, how you get your data out isn’t published, and its Terms say it isn’t meant for emergency calls while its homepage lists them.
Grade details
Weave AI Receptionist
It comes as messaging only or voice and messaging, both priced by quote, so you can’t see the bill first. It shows 25% off “for the rest of 2026,” and what that’s measured against isn’t stated.
Weave has a public status page with a dated incident history, though the AI Receptionist isn’t listed on it. Its terms say “as is,” with no uptime promise or credit.
Your team manages it inside Weave, with a public help center and a monthly what’s new article. Audit logs, free onboarding and a setup timeline aren’t published, and one-on-one training sits on a higher plan.
Weave’s support line is 888-579-5668, Monday to Thursday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday, 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain, plus live chat. Its help center is open to anyone.
Weave’s Terms ask for 30 days’ notice, canceling isn’t final until your numbers have moved out, and a stated term is owed in full. Canceling only the AI isn’t covered.
It sits inside the Weave phones and texting your team already uses, and hands what it can’t answer to your staff with a summary. Your office controls how emergency calls escalate, though no default steps are published. It’s sold as early access.
Grade details
My AI Front Desk
Business-in-a-Box is $79 a month billed annually or $99 month to month, the lowest published price here, with no setup fee and a 7-day free trial. Its dental and HIPAA pages show $109, so confirm which one applies to you.
It states role-based permissions and audit logs, and its help center says each account gets a success manager. There’s no setup fee, and its pages put setup at anywhere from under 5 minutes to under an hour.
No staffed phone line is published. Email support replies within 48 hours during business hours, which is a long wait if your calls have stopped working, and no status page is published.
There’s no fixed term, and you cancel in your dashboard with no notice or fee listed. Access runs to the end of the period, and refunds generally aren’t given.
Its dental pages name Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Curve and Practice-Web, and urgent calls are routed by keywords such as pain and swelling. Its own pages conflict on signing a HIPAA agreement, so there’s no confirmed agreement today.
Grade details
TrueLark
Every quote goes through sales, so you can’t see a price first. It shows 25% off “for the rest of 2026,” with early access.
Weave’s status page has a dated incident history, though no TrueLark line is listed. Its terms say “as is,” with no credit if it goes down.
Expert onboarding is listed with every plan, and you can set user permissions across locations. TrueLark articles sit in Weave’s public help center. Audit logs and setup time aren’t published.
Support is now Weave’s: 888-579-5668, option 1, Monday to Thursday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday, 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain, plus live chat.
Give 30 days’ notice. There are no refunds, a stated term is owed in full, and fees continue until all your numbers have moved out.
It answers calls and texts around the clock, and a caller can move from one to the other. Automatic booking works only with a “qualified” dental system, and no emergency procedure is published, which is what brings this grade down.
Grade details
Viva AI
Gold is $349 a month, and Unlimited is $350 for the first provider plus $150 for each one you add. Gold’s credits come to about 400 minutes if they all go to calls.
Its public status page lists five services and showed no incidents from August to October 2026. Its Terms say “as is,” with no credit if it goes down.
It states role-based access, automatic timeouts and audit logging. Connecting your practice software, phone setup and staff training are listed as included, and bigger plans add an account manager per location.
It gives a phone number for customer support, but its hours, a response time and whether a person picks up aren’t published.
The home page says cancel anytime, but its terms state you owe the balance of your period if you leave early. The length of that period isn’t published.
It lists more than 100 languages and names Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental and Curve, with phone service on Platinum and Diamond. Getting your data out is unanswered, and no page states that 911 works.
Grade details
Arini
No price or plan is published, and everything starts with a demo. Its Terms say paid fees aren’t refundable, with exceptions case by case.
Its public status page shows about 99.96% for inbound calls, and it posted a 47-minute incident on September 29, 2026. The Terms say “as is,” with no credit.
Every customer gets a dedicated success manager, and it says it can be set up in days. Staff roles, audit logs, training and a help center aren’t published.
It gives target reply times, 5 minutes for urgent issues and an hour by email, though not as guarantees. No phone line labeled for support is published.
The public Terms cover the website, not the call service, so the contract that would govern your office isn’t public. Those Terms let you stop renewal, and notice and cost aren’t published.
It’s built for dentistry, and it answers calls and also calls and texts patients who are due back. Outside its blog, no page states its HIPAA status or a signed agreement, or how an emergency call is handled.
Grade details
Smith.ai
AI Receptionist Pro is $150 a month for 75 calls, with no setup fees, and a free AI plan covers 25 calls a month.
Setup takes about 15 minutes by its own count, with no setup fee, and Pro includes dedicated onboarding and an account manager. Staff roles and audit logs aren’t published.
Its people-first service has a support line, (650) 727-6484, seven days a week, and AI Pro and up include phone support. AI support hours aren’t stated.
It states it isn’t HIPAA-compliant and can’t take calls involving patient information, so it only suits general questions and first-time leads. No dental practice software appears among its integrations.
Top 8 AI dental receptionists for 2026
Each AI dental receptionist here earns its place for a different kind of office, so read the “best fit” line before you read the number. No company on this list answers everything that decides this purchase, so each one still has something to confirm. Prices are per month and before taxes, and they’re for the whole plan, not per person, unless we state otherwise.
Best fit for a published price and live booking
Books during the call into Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, DSN and Dolphin, with a 10-day trial for $5. Its pages differ on a few things worth getting in writing.
Read on BuzzWiselyBest fit for up to 3 providers, unlimited calls
Unlimited calls and minutes for one flat price per location, booking into eleven practice systems. Reaching a live person and emergency forwarding start on Premium.
Read on DentinaBest fit for practices already on Weave
Adds AI answering inside the Weave phone and texting system. It’s sold as early access. Weave says your office sets how emergency calls are escalated, but it doesn’t publish what the AI does by default, and its pages don’t mention 911 for the AI. Ask before you sign.
Read on Weave AI ReceptionistBest fit for light call volume
The lowest published price here, now sold under the name Frontdesk. Its own pages disagree on whether it signs a HIPAA agreement, so confirm that first.
Read on My AI Front DeskBest fit for calls and texts handled together
Answers calls and texts around the clock, and a caller can move from a phone call to a text. TrueLark’s pages now lead to Weave, so ask exactly what you’d be buying.
Read on TrueLarkBest fit for AI and phone service together
AI answering in more than 100 languages, and on some plans your phone service too. Viva sells phone service and no page states that 911 works, so ask before you sign.
Read on Viva AIBest fit for outbound recall
Built for dentistry, answering calls and also calling and texting patients who are due back. No page outside its blog confirms a signed agreement.
Read on AriniBest fit for general calls, no patient information
Smith.ai states that it isn’t HIPAA-compliant and can’t take calls involving patient information, so it only suits general questions and first-time leads.
Read on Smith.aiHow they landed here
Our order comes from many factors. Six needs matter most: a signed agreement, a phone number where you can reach a person, getting your data out when you leave, booking into your practice software, what happens in an emergency, and how a caller reaches your team. Only Weave AI Receptionist has a published answer on all six, so here’s what shaped where each one sits. A company whose signed agreement we can’t confirm can’t sit first, whatever else it does well.
AI dental receptionists by kind of practice
Every dental office needs the same basics from an AI dental receptionist: a signed agreement, booking on your real schedule, a safe plan for emergencies and an easy way to reach a person. After that, what you need depends on what a phone call means in your kind of practice. Find the step that sounds like you. Some picks need a higher plan than the one we show, so check the company’s section before you buy.
What a call means to you: most calls are ordinary, such as a cleaning, a reschedule or a question about insurance. There are a lot of them, though, and they tend to land when your team is busiest. Every one that goes unanswered is a chair that may stay empty.
What matters most: booking that lands on your real schedule, answers to insurance questions, and a clean hand-off when someone wants a person.
Start with: BuzzWisely, Dentina and TrueLark.
Which one for you?
What a call means to you: it’s a parent with three kids, a tight school calendar and one phone number for the whole family. They may want to book everyone at once, and they’d often rather text than call.
What matters most: booking several children in one call, two-way texting, and clear rules on who can speak for a child.
Start with: Dentina and TrueLark.
Which one for you?
What a call means to you: a new consult can be the start of treatment that runs for a couple of years, and your schedule fills with short, regular visits. Teens and parents both call, and many prefer a text.
What matters most: a connection to orthodontic software such as Dolphin, consult booking and the same texting a pediatric office needs.
Start with: BuzzWisely and Dentina.
Which one for you?
What a call means to you: it might be a referring office, or a patient two days out from surgery who’s worried about bleeding or swelling. Here, a wrong answer matters far more than a slow one.
What matters most: a person, or a very tight rule, on every urgent call. AI can help with routine scheduling, but be careful about anything clinical.
Start with: a live answering service for urgent calls, covered in our dental answering service guide. Then look at AI for routine scheduling only.
Which one for you?
What a call means to you: a DSO, or dental support organization, is a company that runs many offices. You’re looking at thousands of calls, and you want every office to handle them the same way, with one place to see how it’s going.
What matters most: one dashboard across locations, reports by office, and pricing that makes sense at your size.
Start with: Dentina, Viva AI and TrueLark.
Which one for you?
How your needs change as your team grows
Your kind of practice is only half the picture. A brand-new office with one dentist and a busy office with five live very different days, even in the same specialty. Here’s what tends to change as you grow, so you buy for the office you have today.
Find your situation
Your kind of practice and your team size tell you what you need. Where you are right now tells you what to do first. Most dental offices are in one of these four spots.
Not a dental office? Our guide to AI receptionists for small business covers other kinds of companies.
Free demo
Hear an AI dental receptionist answer a real patient call
BuzzWisely answers every call 24/7, books and reschedules right into your PMS, and includes a signed BAA, $0 setup and no contract. See it handle your own office hours, providers and emergency rules.
Free demo, no commitment
Book a Free BuzzWisely Demo30-day money-back guarantee on Nectar Growth and Honey Unlimited.
What dental offices really use an AI receptionist for
Dental offices use an AI receptionist to catch new patients, cover nights and lunch, take the routine calls off the front desk and keep the schedule full. Few owners care about the software itself. They care about what happens when the phone rings and nobody has a free hand.
An ordinary day with an AI dental receptionist
Here’s what all of that looks like in practice, using a made-up office with two dentists and one person at the front desk. The details change from one office to the next, but the day may feel familiar.
Most of this works on several companies here, but pieces such as live transfer, texting and emergency routing depend on the company and the plan. Each company’s section below tells you what’s included.
AI dental receptionist 101
An AI dental receptionist is software that holds a spoken conversation with your patient, using what you’ve told it about your office. It’s different from a phone menu, the “press 1 for scheduling” recording, because the patient simply talks. Several of the companies here take calls forwarded from the number you already have, so nothing gets installed at your front desk.
Two things separate a useful one from a frustrating one. The first is whether it can see your real schedule, which depends on a connection to your practice management software, or PMS. That’s the program you already use for charts and appointments, such as Dentrix or Open Dental. The second is what it does when it’s out of its depth. A good setup hands the caller to a person, and a poor one leaves them stuck.
How a call moves through an AI dental receptionist
Phone words in plain English
These companies have their own language, and they don’t all use the same words for the same thing. These are the ones you’ll see most often when you compare AI dental receptionists.
What every AI dental receptionist should cover
Whatever you buy, and however small your office is, these eight things should be there. If a plan is missing one, or a company can’t answer in writing, you’re looking at the wrong plan.
How many minutes do you need?
Count your calls, not your people. Most plans here are priced by minutes, calls or providers rather than by staff member, so look at a month of call records from your phone company and write down how many calls come in at lunch, after hours and when lines are busy. BuzzWisely’s Nectar figures of 775 minutes for about 380 calls work out to about two minutes a call, which is a handy rule of thumb. If 300 calls a month would go to the AI, plan on about 600 minutes.
Start with the calls you’re missing, not all of them. An office that sends only after-hours and overflow calls will need far fewer minutes than one that sends everything. Adding more later is usually easy, and moving down is often harder, so buy for the calls you have today. Our quick math shows what 600 minutes costs on each plan that publishes a rate.
Your first month with an AI dental receptionist
If you’ve never set one up, or you’re moving from an answering service, the order matters more than the speed. Companies quote setup anywhere from minutes to about a week, and the part that takes time is yours.
Equipment, connections and rules for an AI dental receptionist
Most dental offices need very little equipment for an AI dental receptionist, and many start with what they already own. The monthly plan is only one piece, though, and because patients are on the line, a few rules apply however small you are. Here’s what you need and what you can’t ignore.
What you need in place
Rules every dental office should know
AI dental receptionist, answering service or another hire?
Most offices weighing an AI dental receptionist are comparing it with two other ways to cover the phones, and many end up using a mix. AI is good at routine calls at any hour, a person is good at the worried patient and the unusual question, and your own staff know your patients in a way nobody else will.
| Question | AI dental receptionist | Live answering service | Another front desk hire |
|---|---|---|---|
| When it answers | Around the clock, several calls at once | After hours and overflow, often around the clock | Office hours, one call at a time |
| Books appointments | Yes, when connected to your PMS | Varies, and many take messages | Yes |
| A worried patient | Follows your rules, then hands off | A person listens, but doesn’t know your patients | Knows them by name |
| How you pay | $79 to $1,199 a month published | Often by the minute or the call | Salary, benefits and training |
If you want real people on the phone, compare your options in our dental answering service guide.
AI dental receptionist features compared
This table compares the eight AI dental receptionists on what decides the purchase: booking, emergencies, reaching a person, the signed agreement and 911. “Ask before you sign” means the company’s pages don’t settle it, not that the answer is no. 911 matters most for a company that replaces your phone service, because a forwarding service leaves your own phone line in place.
| Option | Books into your PMS | Emergencies | Reaching a person | Signed agreement | 911 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BuzzWisely | Yes, during the call | Escalates to your on-call dentist. Terms bar emergency use | Anyone who asks gets a human | Stated. Pages differ, so get it in writing | Not offered |
| Dentina | Yes, on both plans | Forwarding on Premium. Terms: not for emergencies | Premium. Standard takes a message | In its Privacy Policy. Ask for a copy | No service described |
| Weave AI Receptionist | Qualified systems only. Others become requests | Ask before you sign | Hands off with a summary | Ask that it covers this product | Offered on Weave phones. For the AI, ask before you sign |
| My AI Front Desk | Listed for Dentrix, Eaglesoft and Open Dental | Routes to your emergency line or on-call dentist | Live transfer on rules you set | Pages conflict. Ask before you sign | Not listed. Terms bar calls to emergency lines |
| TrueLark | Qualified systems only. Others become requests | Ask before you sign | Hands off with a summary | Published. Ask that it covers this product | Ask before you sign |
| Viva AI | Yes, direct | Alerts staff and reaches your on-call provider | Live transfer on Platinum and Diamond | Stated for every practice. Ask for a copy | Ask before you sign |
| Arini | Yes. Ask which systems | Ask before you sign | Escalates to your team | Ask before you sign | Ask before you sign |
| Smith.ai | No dental software named. Ask before you sign | Ask before you sign | Warm transfer, or a live agent | States it can’t take patient information | Ask before you sign |
AI dental receptionist pricing at a glance
AI dental receptionist prices run from $79 a month to $1,199 a month on published plans, before taxes. Five of the eight publish prices. TrueLark, Weave AI Receptionist and Arini price by quote, so they sit under Other plans.
Be careful comparing these side by side, because each company counts differently. BuzzWisely sells minutes, Smith.ai sells calls, Dentina charges per location, Viva AI charges by credits or by provider, and My AI Front Desk charges per account. Then come taxes, overage (what you pay past your allowance) and any setup in your order, which is why a website price is never your full bill. A written quote that shows every line is the only true number.
What the main published plans cost, per month
Showing the 5 companies that publish prices, for their main plans under $400. My AI Front Desk and Dentina are annual billing, and the others are monthly. Viva AI’s Platinum and Diamond sit higher, below.
775 minutes, about 380 calls. No overage rate is published past that. Paying yearly gives 2 months free, which works out to $2,890 a year.
Sold as unlimited under a fair use policy, and minutes above 1,200 bill at $0.24 each. Paying yearly is $3,890.
Extra phone numbers are $5 a month each on Nectar and Honey, and an add-on list shows texts at $0.02 each.
A starting price per location, billed annually, for up to 3 providers. Unlimited calls and minutes, 6 appointment types, English and Spanish.
Same basis. Adds web chat, two-way texting, warm transfer, emergency forwarding, 10 appointment types and up to 57 languages.
A Monthly option appears on Dentina’s homepage, and the annual option shows “Save 20%.” Get the monthly price in writing.
Or $79 a month billed annually. 200 voice minutes and 400 texts, built for 1 to 10 interactions a day. Its dental pages show $109 instead.
On its pricing page, after a pool of 1,000 credits a month. Another company page shows $0.12, so confirm the rate.
For 25 or more interactions a day, with a dedicated account manager.
On Business-in-a-Box, with unlimited viewing seats and no per-seat fees.
A hard cap on Business-in-a-Box that buying more credits doesn’t lift, so recall campaigns will soon hit it.
After-hours and overflow calls, with 4,000 credits. That’s about 400 minutes if credits go only to calls, and extra credits are $0.10.
For the first provider, plus $150 for each added provider. Unlimited AI credits, with no overage.
Adds complete phone service and live call transfer, with 7,000 credits. Extra credits are $0.09.
The same features as Platinum, with 12,000 credits. Extra credits are $0.08.
A monthly add-on with desk phones, outreach campaigns, recall and reminders.
25 calls, with a card required at signup. Extra calls are $3 each, and overage is off by default.
That’s $2 a call, and extra calls are $2.50. It includes live phone, email and chat support.
About $1.67 a call, and extra calls are $2.17.
Live people, not AI. Extra calls are $11.50 each.
Extra calls are $10.50 each.
Add-ons apply to all your calls, so booking on Starter comes to $345 a month.
Other plans
For multi-location groups and franchises, with minutes pooled across offices.
Pricing for 10 or more locations, plus outbound recall campaigns.
Custom, volume-based pricing for groups with several locations.
Messaging, or voice and messaging, with 25% off “for the rest of 2026.” The regular price isn’t shown.
The same two versions. Weave’s Base Plan “starts at” $199 a month, and no page states whether you need it.
No plan names or prices appear on its site. You book a demo to find out.
AI dental receptionist cost by team size
Here’s what the published plans cost one office each month as the number of providers grows, before taxes and overage. A provider is anyone patients can book with. Several prices don’t move with your team, but your calls will, so check that the minutes or calls still cover you. Prices here are for a single location.
| Plan | 1 provider | 3 providers | 5 providers |
|---|---|---|---|
| My AI Front Desk (annual, 200 minutes) | $79 | $79 | $79 |
| BuzzWisely Nectar (775 minutes) | $289 | $289 | $289 |
| Dentina Standard (annual) | $299 | $299 | Ask before you sign |
| Viva AI Unlimited | $350 | $650 | $950 |
| BuzzWisely Honey (1,200 minutes before overage) | $389 | $389 | $389 |
| Dentina Premium (annual) | $399 | $399 | Ask before you sign |
Dentina’s published plans cover up to 3 providers per location. For three locations on annual billing, Dentina comes to $897 a month on Standard and $1,197 on Premium.
Free demo
See what 24/7 answering would cost your practice
BuzzWisely answers every call 24/7, books and reschedules right into your PMS, and includes a signed BAA, $0 setup and no contract. See it handle your own office hours, providers and emergency rules.
Free demo, no commitment
Book a Free BuzzWisely Demo30-day money-back guarantee on Nectar Growth and Honey Unlimited.
AI dental receptionist reviews
Customer reviews would normally be the heart of this section, and for AI dental receptionists there aren’t enough recent ones to lean on yet. None of these eight has enough reviews from the past year to grade fairly, so we show “Not enough information” and don’t invent a score. Reviews of Weave’s phone and texting platform are about a different product, so they don’t count for Weave AI Receptionist. Where we did find reviews from the past year, on Google Maps or G2, the company’s write-up below has cards that sum them up in our own words. Each card names the reviewer, the month and the site, and links back so you can read it for yourself. BuzzWisely, Dentina, Weave AI Receptionist, Viva AI and Arini had none from the past year on the sites we checked.
Customer review ratings for AI dental receptionists
Too few reviews never counts against a company. It only means customers haven’t told us enough yet. A trial or a reference call from a similar office will tell you more right now than a star rating could.
Forwarded calls, booked into your practice software during the call
BuzzWisely sits first on this list, with two of the six needs that decide it still unanswered: a staffed support phone line and getting your data out after canceling. It fits the office that wants to see a price and try it this week. You forward your existing number, and the AI answers, books, reschedules and cancels in your practice software while the patient is still on the line. It lists its deepest connections as Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, DSN and Dolphin, out of 204+ integrations it says are growing monthly, and it also names Curve, RevenueWell, Lighthouse 360, Tab32 and Adit without details, so confirm those. Trained on your list of accepted PPO plans, it takes down a new patient’s name, birth date, phone number, insurance and reason for the visit.
The trial is simple: 10 days for $5 on Nectar or Honey, with full features, rolling into your chosen plan after that. On the human side, the dental page states that anyone who asks for a person gets one, and the fallback order is your primary on-call person, a second person, your manager, then a voicemail. You can change that order to suit your office. One thing you won’t find published is a staffed support phone line. Support is by email, with a dedicated manager on Honey and Hive.
Emergencies and 911: BuzzWisely’s Terms carry a “No emergency use” heading and state “No 911 support.” Its dental page sells something that looks different: the AI sorts how urgent a call is, then books it or escalates to your on-call dentist under your rules, with a transcript. Since it takes forwarded calls, your own phone line stays yours. A default “hang up and dial 911” message isn’t published, and the Terms leave any emergency notice for you to set in your script, so write one.
Not the best fit if: every call needs clinical judgment, or you run many outbound campaigns. BuzzWisely names oral surgery emergencies as a poor fit, and its Fair Use Policy bars mass outbound campaigns while its dental page describes outbound recall, so ask how much recall calling your plan allows.
Get these in writing: BuzzWisely’s own pages differ on three things that matter. The agreement: pricing shows a signed BAA on all plans, the Security page names only “certain plans,” the Terms have you request one, and the BAA itself isn’t posted. Get a signed copy, and ask whether it and HIPAA Mode are on during the $5 trial. Emergencies: ask how the on-call escalation fits with the Terms’ “No emergency use” wording. Refunds: the pricing page shows the 30-day guarantee, while the Terms state all fees are non-refundable, so get the guarantee’s conditions on paper.
Ask before you sign: whether the trial needs a card, because the pricing page and its footer differ, what Nectar charges past 775 minutes, and whether you can export your data after canceling. For every plan and add-on, see our BuzzWisely pricing guide.
A flat price per location, sold only to dental offices
Dentina sits second on this list, with one of the six needs that decide it still unanswered: how you get your data out when you leave. It fits the office that hates counting minutes. Standard covers unlimited calls and minutes for a location with up to 3 providers, so a busy Monday doesn’t turn into a bigger bill. It’s a dental-only product with a dentist as its founder, and it names more practice systems than anyone here: Open Dental, Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Dentrix Enterprise, Eaglesoft, Curve, Denticon, Cloud9, Dolphin, OrthoTrac and PracticeWorks. Bookings, changes and cancellations write back to your schedule.
It also knows how families call. Dentina publishes booking a whole family in one call, which will sound good to any office that has tried to line up three kids and a school calendar. You keep your number and phone company, because it runs on a forwarding rule, and it goes live in about 3 days. It works with the phone companies most offices use, including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Cox and Spectrum.
The plan you choose matters more here than anywhere else on this list. On Standard, a call the AI can’t finish defaults to a message. Warm transfer, a live representative on request and emergency forwarding all start on Premium at $399 a month, billed annually. If you want a patient to reach a person, or an urgent call to reach you, budget for Premium.
Emergencies and 911: Dentina doesn’t describe any 911 service. Its Terms state the service isn’t intended for emergency communications or time-sensitive clinical triage, and they don’t guarantee delivery of a call. Its homepage lists emergencies among the calls it covers and sells emergency forwarding on Premium, so ask how those fit together, and what a patient hears on Standard.
Not the best fit if: a location has more than 3 providers, because no price is published for that yet. Ask first, and you may find a better match in Viva AI’s per-provider plan.
Ask before you sign: the monthly price, whether “cancel anytime with refund” on the homepage covers an annual plan, because the Terms allow no refunds beyond law or company discretion, and how to get your data out. Also ask for the BAA itself, because the Privacy Policy refers to one and no copy is linked. The Terms cap the company’s liability at $50, so read that clause too.
AI answering inside the Weave phone and texting system
If your team already lives in Weave all day, this is the natural place to look, because the AI sits inside the phones and texting your staff already use. It answers calls and texts around the clock, handles common questions, and takes appointment requests for your team to review. You can choose when calls go to the AI, including rules by working hours, and it hands anything it can’t answer to your staff with a summary.
It comes in two versions, messaging only or voice and messaging, and Weave’s plans and product pages call it early access even though a May 28, 2026 release announced its launch. So expect it to keep changing. Automatic booking works only with a “qualified” dental system, and the pages we could read don’t list those systems. Language switching, payments and recall sit under “coming soon” on the product page, while Weave’s AI page lists them without that note, so confirm what you’d get on day one.
Emergencies and 911: Weave says your office sets how emergency calls are escalated, but it doesn’t publish what the AI does by default, and its pages don’t mention 911 for the AI. Ask before you sign. Weave’s phone service itself does offer 911 through a third-party provider, which may reach a call center rather than your local dispatcher, and callers need to state their location right away. Weave recommends a backup such as a cell phone.
Not the best fit if: you’re not on Weave and like your current phones. Weave’s platform replaces your old phone system, and no page states whether the AI works without it, so if you aren’t ready for that change, start with a forwarding service.
Ask before you sign: whether Weave’s BAA covers this product, because the AI terms don’t mention HIPAA and put data security on you, and what the emergency steps are. Weave’s terms also make you responsible for checking what the AI tells patients, and calls are recorded unless you ask Weave to stop. Our Weave pricing guide covers the full platform.
The lowest published price, now sold under the name Frontdesk
If you know this company as My AI Front Desk, you’ll now find it branded as Frontdesk, “A Bevado Company,” with AI Front Desk, Inc. in the terms. It’s built for all kinds of small businesses, and it has dental pages naming Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Curve and Practice-Web, with live booking described for the first three. At $79 a month billed annually, or $99 month to month, it’s the lowest published price on this list.
Think of it as a plan for a quiet phone. Business-in-a-Box includes 200 voice minutes and 400 texts and is built for 1 to 10 interactions a day, so a brand-new office could live with it and a busy one would soon pay overage. The company’s own example puts 350 voice minutes at $126.50 for the month. Canceling is refreshingly simple, right in your dashboard with no contract, and a 7-day free trial lets you hear it first.
The price isn’t what decides this one, though. The company’s own pages conflict on the signed agreement. Its main HIPAA and dental pages state a BAA comes on every plan, and other company pages dated August 4, 2026 state it doesn’t offer or sign one and limit the service to calls with no patient information. Its terms and pricing page don’t mention it. So there’s no confirmed agreement today. Ask before you sign, and get the answer in writing.
Emergencies and 911: no 911 service is listed. The terms and Acceptable Use Policy bar using the service to call emergency lines, 911 centers and health care facilities, while its dental pages describe detecting words such as pain or swelling and routing the call to your emergency line or on-call dentist. If you keep your own phone line and forward calls, your phones stay as they are. Don’t make its number your main line until you’ve asked how these fit together.
Not the best fit if: most of your calls involve patient details and you can’t wait for a written answer on the agreement. A company with a confirmed BAA will let you sleep better.
My AI Front Desk customer reviews
From G2, all from the past year. Each card opens the review where it was posted.
Even I find it hard to believe that it’s AI.
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Realistic AI with Call Handling Excellence, Needs Better Integration
Gave Us Time Back and Streamlined Our Customer Journey.
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Versatile Solution
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
One of the Best AI Receptionist Tools We Have Used
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Very Effective for Managing Customer Communication at Scale
Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Ask before you sign: whether it will sign a BAA, the real price, since its dental pages show $109 a month, and how you’d get your number and records out. Porting a number in is offered, and nothing is published on moving one out.
Read more My AI Front Desk reviews on G2. None of these reviews come from dental offices. We didn’t find My AI Front Desk on Google Maps, and its one Capterra review isn’t from the past year.
An AI receptionist for dental practices, now reached through Weave
TrueLark sits fifth on this list. It has published answers on five of the six needs that decide this list: the signed agreement, a phone number to reach a person, getting your data out, booking, and how a caller reaches your team. The sixth, what happens in an emergency, is still unanswered, you can’t see a price without talking to sales, and a published answer isn’t always a generous one, as you’ll see below.
Picture the patient who calls at 9 PM, then would rather finish by text because the baby’s asleep. TrueLark answers calls and texts around the clock and lets a caller move from one to the other. Anything it can’t answer confidently goes to your staff with a summary. Booking is where to look closely, because automatic booking and rescheduling work only with a “qualified” dental system, and the pages we could read don’t list them, so ask before you sign. With any other system, the AI takes a request for your team to review.
You should know what you’re buying, too. TrueLark’s own product, price and legal links now lead to Weave, which announced a deal to buy TrueLark in May 2025, and Weave itself was bought by Francisco Partners on October 26, 2026. Only a dental demo page still carries the TrueLark name, and no page states that TrueLark and Weave AI Receptionist are the same product, which is why we list them separately. Weave’s pages also show payments, language switching and recall follow-ups as coming soon.
Emergencies and 911: no emergency procedure is published. A Weave press release from May 28, 2026 states that practices control emergency and high-priority handling, and the product page and its terms don’t mention 911, so ask before you sign what a patient in danger will hear.
Not the best fit if: you need Spanish on day one or want a price before you talk to anyone. Weave’s product page shows language switching as coming soon, and every quote goes through sales.
TrueLark customer reviews
From Google Maps, all from the past year. Each card opens the review where it was posted.
On Google, all four TrueLark reviews in the past year were 1-star complaints.
Ask before you sign: which product you’d get, whether your practice software qualifies, whether the published BAA covers this product and texting, and the price after the 25% ends. Prices can also rise up to 10% in any 12 months without notice.
Read more TrueLark reviews on Google Maps and G2. Its newest G2 reviews are from October 2025, just outside the past year.
AI answering in more than 100 languages, with phone service on some plans
Viva AI fits the office that’s tired of juggling separate companies for phones, texting and the AI. On Platinum and Diamond, Viva lists complete phone service, along with texting, web chat, digital forms, online booking and live call transfer. Gold is the smaller step, at after-hours and overflow calls only. If your neighborhood speaks many languages, Viva’s listing of more than 100 is the widest here, though one other page of its site names more than 12.
The plans take some reading. Credits are spent as you go, with 10 for each minute of AI-answered calls and 5 for each AI-answered message, so Gold’s 4,000 credits come to about 400 minutes if they all go to calls. The Unlimited plan is often simpler for a small office: $350 a month for the first provider and $150 for each one you add, with no overage. Live call transfer isn’t listed on Gold or Unlimited, so check that against how you want patients to reach you. The Scheduling page names Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental and Curve.
Emergencies and 911: Viva AI sells phone service, and no page states that 911 works or how an address gets registered. Ask before you sign. Its pages do describe the AI alerting staff and sending true emergencies to your on-call provider, and its terms require you to tell patients to call an emergency number in a medical emergency. If Viva would become your only phone company, get the 911 answer in writing first.
Not the best fit if: you want freedom to walk away at any time. Viva’s terms state that if you cancel before your subscription or commitment period ends, you owe the balance of it, even though the home page invites you to cancel anytime.
Ask before you sign: whether 911 works, your exact term, and how the 30-day trial ends. Ask for the BAA too. Its FAQ states one is signed with every practice, and the text couldn’t be found. Viva’s terms also allow your practice data to train a tuned AI model, so ask how that fits with the BAA. Four product pages show $200 to $500 a month, which matches no plan, so go by your written quote.
See any reviews for yourself on G2.
Dental AI that answers calls and reaches out to patients who are due back
Arini is built for dentistry, and its appeal is the part many others leave out. Besides answering inbound calls, it calls and texts patients who are overdue, sends reminders by text and follows up with a call if there’s no reply. If your hygiene schedule has more holes than your phone has missed calls, that’s the problem it speaks to. It’s trained on your policies, providers, services and locations, answers questions about the insurance plans you accept, and can add online scheduling to your website.
Arini gives every customer a dedicated success manager, and its product page shows 5 minutes for urgent inquiries, 1 hour for emails and about 4 hours to resolve a ticket, without stating that these are guarantees. It lists plans from 1 to 20 locations up to more than 100, and it publishes little beyond that. Its status page shows inbound calls at 99.96% for August to November 2026, with one incident on September 29, 2026, when calls may not have connected for 47 minutes.
The reason it sits at #7 is how much isn’t published yet. Outside its blog, no page states its HIPAA status or a BAA, and the Trust Center link in its footer opens nothing. The public Terms describe the website and don’t mention calls, patients or dental care, so the contract that would really govern your office isn’t public. The practice systems on its demo form are a question on the form, not a confirmed list. All of this may have a good answer. You just need to get it directly.
Emergencies and 911: no page outside the blog states how an emergency call is handled, and none mentions 911. Ask before you sign. Its product page does show chats passing to clinical staff when medical advice comes up, and escalation to your team when a request falls outside your rules.
Not the best fit if: you want to read the price and the agreement before you take a meeting. Everything here starts with a demo.
Ask before you sign: for the signed BAA, the actual contract, the price, which practice systems it connects to, how calls reach it and whether you keep your number.
AI or live answering for calls that carry no patient details
Smith.ai stays on this list for a narrow job. It states that it works with dental practices on calls with no patient information: answering common questions, taking messages, qualifying new patient leads and transferring calls. If your office wants someone to tell callers your hours and your parking, and pass everything else along, it can do that. If a call could turn to a patient’s care or account, it’s the wrong tool, and a company with a signed agreement is the right one.
It sells two different things. The AI Receptionist answers around the clock and is priced by the call, and the Virtual Receptionists are live people across North America, on the same per-call footing at much higher prices. On the AI plans, a caller who asks for a human reaches a live agent at $3 a call, and transfers to your own team carry no fee. No dental practice software appears among the integrations we could see, so booking is unlikely to reach your real schedule without help.
Emergencies and 911: its AI pages don’t mention 911 or emergency calls, so ask before you sign. Its home page states urgent matters can go to your team or a live agent.
Not the best fit if: you’re looking for a main receptionist for patient calls. For that, start higher on this list, or see our dental answering service guide.
Smith.ai customer reviews
From G2, all from the past year. Each card opens the review where it was posted.
Smith.ai Helps Us Capture More Calls and Customers
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Wonderful Customer Service and Positive Client Feedback
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Responsive Team That Quickly Adapts Scripts to Our Feedback
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
10/10 in Service, Product, and Cost!
Product: 10/10
Cost of Service: 10/10 I still can’t believe for what we pay, we get all of the features we have. Absolutely amazing!! Love, love, LOVE Smith.ai!!!!!!
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
A Great Solution for Call Coverage and Overflow
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Seamless Dialpad Integration with Real-Time Notifications and Responsive Support
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Ask before you sign: Smith.ai asks practices that need HIPAA support to talk to its team before starting, so get any answer on a BAA in writing. Its terms should also be read directly for renewal and rate rises.
Read more Smith.ai reviews on G2. These reviews sit on G2’s Smith.ai AI Receptionist listing and come from law firms and other businesses, not dental offices. Some reviewers there use its live receptionists. We didn’t find Smith.ai on Google Maps.
Other AI dental receptionist options we considered
These came up alongside the AI dental receptionists above, and they’re live answering services with real people rather than AI. If you’ve read this far and you’d rather have a person on every call, they’re worth a look, and our dental answering service guide compares them in full.
Our Verdict on choosing an AI dental receptionist
There’s no single AI dental receptionist that suits every office, and nobody here has earned a clean sweep yet, but there’s a clear way to choose. Start with the signed agreement, because without one, the rest doesn’t matter. Then ask whether it can book into your practice software, and what happens to a patient in trouble. BuzzWisely and Dentina let a single office see a price and start quickly, Viva AI brings phones and AI together if you get the 911 answer first, and TrueLark suits an office that wants calls and texts handled together and doesn’t mind a quote. Weave AI Receptionist makes sense for an office already on Weave, and My AI Front Desk and Arini both need one written answer before they make sense for patient calls. Smith.ai suits general calls only.
Whichever you choose, try it before you trust it. Call your own number as a new patient, a nervous patient and an emergency, then read the transcripts. Have the agreement signed before real patients reach it. Then get the rules for canceling in writing, because the home page and the contract don’t always match. Dental offices rarely get hurt by a missing feature. They get hurt by the patient call that went wrong, or by a contract nobody read.
What an AI dental receptionist does well
- It answers at 7 AM, at lunch and on Saturday night, when your team can’t.
- It can book routine visits on your real schedule while the patient is on the line.
- It gives your front desk room to look up at the patient standing in front of them.
What to plan for
- You’re responsible for what it tells patients, so someone has to read the transcripts.
- Emergency rules are yours to write, and you may need to write the 911 message too.
- Some patients will want a person, so make sure there’s an easy way to reach one.
Quick math: what 600 AI minutes a month costs
About 300 calls at two minutes each, for one office with one provider. Plans that charge by the minute or credit, or don’t charge for use, are shown. My AI Front Desk and Dentina use annual billing.
Worked out from published rates, before taxes. Viva AI Gold is $349 plus 2,000 extra credits at $0.10. My AI Front Desk is $79 plus 400 extra minutes at $0.25, less its 1,000 monthly credits. A price is only useful once the plan fits your needs, so read each company’s section too.
For the systems these tools book into, see our dental practice management software guide, and for reminders and texting, our patient engagement software guide.
AI dental receptionist FAQs
What is an AI dental receptionist?
It’s software that answers your office’s phone and talks with patients using what you’ve taught it about your practice. With a connection to your practice software, it can book and change appointments. When it can’t help, it passes the call to a person or takes a message.
Which AI dental receptionist should I choose?
It depends on your software, your size and how you want emergencies handled. BuzzWisely and Dentina publish prices for a single office, Viva AI combines AI with phone service, TrueLark handles calls and texts together, and Weave AI Receptionist suits offices already on Weave. There’s no single winner.
How much does an AI dental receptionist cost?
Published paid plans run from $79 a month for My AI Front Desk, billed annually, to $1,199 a month for Viva AI Diamond. BuzzWisely starts at $289, Dentina at $299 billed annually, and Viva AI at $349. TrueLark, Weave AI Receptionist and Arini price by quote.
Is an AI dental receptionist HIPAA compliant?
It can be used safely only with a signed business associate agreement, or BAA, in place. Ask to see the signed copy, covering this exact product. Smith.ai states it isn’t HIPAA-compliant and can’t take calls involving patient information, and My AI Front Desk’s own pages conflict on whether it signs one.
Can an AI dental receptionist book directly into Dentrix or Open Dental?
Several can. Dentina, BuzzWisely, Viva AI and My AI Front Desk all name Dentrix and Open Dental. TrueLark and Weave AI Receptionist book automatically only with a qualified dental system, so ask whether yours is on the list. Without a connection, the AI takes a request and your team books it.
What happens if a patient calls with an emergency?
It depends on the rules you set and on the company. Several can send an urgent call to your on-call dentist, and Dentina’s emergency forwarding starts on Premium. Dentina’s and BuzzWisely’s terms state their service isn’t meant for emergencies, so write a clear message for anything life-threatening.
Does an AI dental receptionist work with 911?
Treat it as something that doesn’t. BuzzWisely’s Terms state no 911 support, My AI Front Desk bars calls to emergency lines, and Viva AI sells phone service with no page stating that 911 works, so ask before you sign. If you only forward calls, your office phones stay on your own phone line, so check 911 with your phone company.
Can I keep my practice phone number?
On the forwarding services, yes. Your number stays with your phone company and calls are sent to the AI, as with Dentina, BuzzWisely and My AI Front Desk. Weave and Viva AI sell phone service, so your number moves to them, which is called porting. Keep your old service running until the move is finished.
Will an AI dental receptionist replace my front desk?
No. It takes routine, after-hours and overflow calls, so your team can look after the people in the office. Treatment conversations, billing problems and worried patients are still a job for someone who knows them.
Should I tell patients they’re talking to AI?
Yes, where the law asks, and most offices will find it’s simply better manners. Several companies here leave that notice to you. Put it in your greeting, along with any recording notice your state requires.
Can an AI dental receptionist work for an orthodontist?
Yes, if it connects to your software. Dentina and BuzzWisely both name Dolphin, and Dentina also names OrthoTrac and Cloud9. Confirm consult booking and texting for teens and parents in a trial, using your own schedule.
Why does every company show “Not enough information” for reviews?
None of the eight has enough recent customer reviews to grade fairly, and we’d rather show a gap than guess. It doesn’t count against anyone. When enough recent reviews appear, the grades and this guide will change.
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