The short answer
A dental AI receptionist answers your practice's phone when your team can't: after hours, at lunch, and when both lines are busy. It answers patients' questions, books or requests appointments, takes messages and sends real emergencies to the on-call dentist.
Dental-specific products cost $299 to $1,199 a month where the price is published at all, and four of the six we checked hide their price behind a demo. General AI receptionists like Zinng start at $49 a month.
The practices that are happy with one use it to catch the calls that would otherwise go to voicemail, not to replace the person at the front desk. That's also what dentists on Reddit say they'd accept.
A note on bias: we built Zinng for my wife's dental office. We kept losing new patients to missed and after-hours calls, and nothing we tried understood how a dental front desk actually works. So this page compares Zinng with the dental tools we looked at ourselves, with the prices each company publishes and the date we checked.
How many calls dental practices miss
More than most offices think. There's no independent study of dental call answering, so treat these as estimates from companies that sell phone tools to dentists:
- 38% unanswered: Peerlogic tracked 4,280 calls across a 26-practice dental group in February 2026 and found 38% went unanswered.
- 33% during business hours: TrueLark (now part of Weave) reports that 33% of calls go unanswered even during office hours, and that nearly 80% of missed calls are about booking.
- 30 to 38%: Dental Economics cites "industry benchmarks" in the same range, without naming the source.
In our own office the pattern was simple: new patients call around the workday, at lunch or after 5, and if nobody answers they call the next practice on the list. To put a number on your practice, try our free missed-call calculator for dental offices or the after-hours revenue calculator.
What dentists say about AI receptionists
We read every recent Reddit thread we could find in r/Dentistry and r/Dentists. Opinions split along one line: replacing the front desk, no; covering the calls nobody answers, yes.
The most upvoted reply in r/Dentistry's biggest thread on the topic was blunt:
But in the same thread, others drew the line where we would:
Other replies we saw repeated across threads:
- "I think it's useful for after hours or weekends." (r/Dentistry)
- "We tested it out. Takes too long for day to day. Good for after hours or someone trying to schedule something simple." (r/Dentistry, July 2026)
- "I'm debating using AI for after hours only since patients' only other recourse is a voicemail." (r/Dentistry, July 2026)
- One practice reviewing another vendor's AI: "Ten inbound calls through the AI. Zero booked appointments." (r/Dentistry, July 2026)
That last one is the risk with any of these tools: an AI that answers but can't book isn't much better than voicemail. Test it on real calls before you rely on it.
What a dental AI receptionist handles
These are the calls that fill a dental front desk's voicemail, and what a good AI does with each. Every item is something Zinng does today:
- New-patient calls: answers "are you taking new patients?", collects the caller's name, number and reason for the visit, and books them or texts a booking link before they call the next office.
- Insurance questions: answers "do you take my insurance?" from the list of plans you give it, and takes the details when it's a question your team should check.
- Emergencies after hours: follows your rules for a toothache, a broken tooth or swelling, and transfers a real emergency to the on-call dentist or flags it as urgent. It never gives clinical advice of its own.
- Reschedules and cancellations: takes the request and the patient's details so your team can fill the gap first thing.
- The everyday questions: hours, parking, directions, what to bring, whether you see children, payment plans.
- Spanish-speaking patients: Zinng handles 63 languages and dialects, including Spanish.
- Everything written down: each call is recorded and transcribed in your inbox, so the morning team knows exactly who called overnight.
The fastest way to judge it is to hear it. Our free demo reads your practice's website and builds an AI receptionist you can talk to in about a minute.
What dental AI receptionists cost
We checked the pricing page of every dental AI receptionist that showed up on Google's first page for "dental ai receptionist" on October 14, 2026, plus Zinng:
| Service | Starting price | Free trial | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zinng (ours) | $49/mo | 7 days | 300 minutes; $99 for 700 adds live booking on the call. Not dental-only. |
| Dentina | $299/mo | 30 days | Billed annually, per location, up to 3 providers. Premium is $399. |
| Viva AI | $349/mo | 30 days, risk-free | Gold is after hours and overflow only; full plans $899 and $1,199. |
| Weave | Not published | No (platform) | AI Receptionist is an early-access add-on to Weave plans that start at $199/mo. |
| Arini | Not published | Not mentioned | Book a demo to get a price. |
| Dental Intelligence | Not published | Not mentioned | Book a demo to get a price. |
| VoiceStack | Not published | Not mentioned | Its pricing page promises "transparent, predictable pricing" but shows no numbers. |
Two things stand out. First, the dental tools cost 6 to 24 times more than a general AI receptionist, because they're sold as practice platforms with texting, forms and reminders bundled in. If you already have those, you may be paying twice. Second, most of them won't tell you the price until you sit through a sales call.
Viva AI is the dental-only option in our AI receptionist directory. Here's its full card, with every plan:
Viva AI
Dental offices only
AI receptionist and phone system built for dental offices, from $349/month for after-hours and overflow up to $1,199. Higher plans replace your phone system and book into your practice software.
Checked October 2, 2026 on getviva.ai. Prices change; confirm before you buy.
Want more options? Our Viva AI alternatives page compares it with general AI receptionists, and our review of 36 AI receptionists covers the rest.
HIPAA: get a BAA before the first patient call
Patients mention symptoms, medications and insurance details on the phone, so whatever answers your phone handles protected health information. Under HIPAA that means the vendor needs to sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with your practice before it takes a single patient call.
- Zinng is fully HIPAA compliant and will sign a BAA with you. Here's how to request one.
- Viva AI says it is SOC 2 Type II certified and signs a BAA with every practice.
- Everyone else: ask for the BAA in writing before you sign, and ask where call recordings are stored and for how long.
How to set it up for after hours and overflow
This is the setup that dentists on Reddit say works, and the one we use ourselves. You keep your practice number, and your team still answers first:
- Teach it your practice: hours, services, the insurance plans you accept, new-patient policy and your emergency rules. Zinng can draft this from your website.
- Decide what it does after hours: book or text a booking link, take messages, and which emergencies go straight to the on-call dentist's phone.
- Forward only the calls you miss: set your phone to forward when nobody answers, when the line is busy, or after hours. Our call-forwarding codes tool gives the exact code for your carrier.
- Call it yourself: ask what a new patient would, read the transcript, fix any gaps, then go live.
Every Zinng plan includes free setup help. You can try it free for 7 days; after that it's $49 a month for 300 minutes, with no contract.
What to ask any dental AI receptionist before you buy
- What does it cost per month, and what happens when we go over? (If they won't say before a demo, ask in writing.)
- Can it actually book the appointment, or only take a request?
- Will you sign a BAA, and where are call recordings stored?
- How does it handle an emergency at 10 p.m., and can it reach our on-call phone?
- Can a caller always reach a person or leave a message for one?
- Can we start with after-hours calls only, and is there an annual contract?
Then run the test that matters: call it with the five questions your front desk gets most, and see whether it books the patient.
Using it for more than dental? Our AI receptionist guide covers how they work and what they cost across industries, and our Zinng for dental offices page shows the product in more detail.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a dental AI receptionist cost?
Of the dental-specific AI receptionists we checked in October 2026, only two publish prices: Dentina starts at $299 a month per location (billed annually) and Viva AI at $349 a month. Weave, Arini, Dental Intelligence and VoiceStack only quote after a demo. General AI receptionists cost less; Zinng starts at $49 a month for 300 minutes.
Is a dental AI receptionist HIPAA compliant?
It has to be, because patients share health details on the phone. Before the first patient call, ask the vendor to sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA). Zinng is HIPAA compliant and will sign a BAA, and Viva AI says it signs a BAA with every practice.
Will my patients hate talking to an AI?
Some will, which is why most practices use it for after-hours and overflow calls rather than in place of the front desk. A patient who would otherwise reach voicemail at 7 p.m. usually prefers an answer and a booked visit. Make sure callers can always reach a person, or leave a message for one.
Can an AI receptionist book dental appointments?
Yes. Most can text the patient a booking link or book on the call. Zinng texts a booking link on its $49 plan and books live on the call on its $99 plan, using your online calendar. Dental-specific products like Dentina and Viva AI advertise booking straight into the practice's own scheduling software.
Can it handle dental emergencies after hours?
It can follow your emergency rules: ask what's wrong, give the instructions you approve, and transfer a real emergency to the on-call dentist's phone or flag it as urgent. It should never give clinical advice of its own.
Does it replace my front desk?
No, and dentists on Reddit are clear they don't want it to. The practices that like it use it to catch the calls the front desk can't get to: lunch, evenings, weekends and when both lines are busy.
Is there a free trial?
Dentina offers a 30-day free trial and Viva AI a 30-day risk-free trial. Zinng has a 7-day free trial with no contract, and a free demo that builds an AI receptionist from your practice's website in about a minute.
Sources
Prices and trials come from each company's own website, checked October 14, 2026. Prices change often, so confirm before you buy. Missed-call figures are from vendors that sell phone tools to dentists.
- Dentina pricing
- Viva AI pricing
- Weave plans
- Arini AI receptionist
- Dental Intelligence AI Receptionist
- VoiceStack pricing
- We Analyzed 4,280 Dental Patient Calls Across 26 Practices (Peerlogic, 2026)
- Patient communication data from TrueLark (Group Dentistry Now)
- The economics of missed calls (Dental Economics)
- Reddit: r/Dentistry, July 2025, r/Dentists, September 2026, r/Dentistry, July 2026, r/Dentistry, July 2026 (review)
