Setup checklist for a dental AI receptionist

Deploying an AI receptionist for a dental practice takes a few hours of your time, most of it gathering information rather than doing technical work. This checklist covers exactly what to prepare, what decisions to make, and what to expect during the 365agents Dental Receptionist onboarding.

Most practices are fully live within a week of kickoff. The speed depends entirely on how quickly your team can gather the items below.

Before the kickoff call

Gather these items so onboarding can move quickly:

• Practice management software — which one (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Curve Hero, Dolphin, etc.) and admin credentials

• Hours and holiday schedule — including any variation by provider

• Provider list — names, specialties, photo-ID-appropriate credentials, which providers see new patients, and which handle specific specialties

• New-patient intake questions — what do you currently collect at the desk or on paper

• Accepted insurances — in-network PPO and Premier lists, plus the general "we bill out-of-network" language

• Emergency protocol — who's on call, how to reach them, pain-level thresholds

• Pricing ranges — for routine services; you don't need exact codes, just what you tell prospective patients

• Parking and location notes — specific directions, building access, parking validation

• Top 20–30 FAQs — the questions your front desk answers most often

Decisions you'll need to make

• Voice — we default to Aria (warm, professional) for dental; you can choose a different voice or record your own for cloning

• Greeting — how should the AI introduce itself? "Hi, this is Aria, the AI receptionist for Cedar Dental" is the default; many practices customize

• Disclosure — do you want the AI to proactively disclose that it's AI? We recommend yes; your call

• After-hours handling — does the AI handle all hours, or just after hours / overflow?

• Emergency routing — who gets the urgent call at 11pm on a Sunday? Is there an answering service fallback?

• New-patient flow — do you require insurance verification before booking, or book first and verify later?

• Which phone number — forwarding your main line or a new dedicated number for testing

HIPAA setup

• We provide our standard HIPAA Business Associate Agreement for countersignature

• Confirm which staff roles can access call recordings (front desk, office manager, clinical leads)

• Decide on call retention period (30, 90, or 365 days; longer retention is configurable for specific compliance needs)

• Review our HIPAA-specific configuration checklist during onboarding

Integration setup

• Authorize access to your practice management software for calendar read/write

• Connect SMS / email tool for confirmations (most practices use their existing PMS for this; some add a dedicated SMS tool)

• Connect CRM if separate from PMS (many practices don't need this)

Call forwarding setup

• Identify your current phone provider or PBX — we have step-by-step guides for every major platform in our Call forwarding collection

• Decide on forwarding rules: always, after-hours, no-answer, overflow, or a combination

• Confirm E911 configuration — if your office line is VoIP, make sure the correct address is on file

Go-live sequence

• Day 1: kickoff call, requirements review, agent configuration begins

• Day 2–3: knowledge base loaded, test calls with our onboarding team

• Day 3–5: your team runs test calls for real-world scenarios

• Day 5–7: soft launch (after-hours or overflow first), then full rollout

• Weeks 2–4: ongoing tuning based on real call transcripts

What to measure after go-live

• Call containment rate — how many calls the AI handles without escalating

• New-patient capture — are calls that used to go to voicemail becoming appointments?

• Emergency response time — how quickly are high-pain calls reaching your on-call team?

• Caller satisfaction — spot-check transcripts for frustrated callers or repeated confusion

• Team feedback — is your front desk getting the escalated calls they should, and not the ones they shouldn't?

Related articles

• How 365agents works for dental practices

• Common calls a dental AI receptionist handles

• How long to set up an AI receptionist?

• HIPAA compliance

Start the process

Book a demo and our onboarding team will walk you through this checklist in a live 30-minute session. Most dental practices leave that call with a clear plan and a go-live date. See the Receptionist Agent product page for more.