Can she tell a caller whether we are in-network with their plan?

She answers from the list of carriers you give her, in the words you give her, and she notes the carrier on the appointment so the desk can verify eligibility before the visit. She does not say what a plan will cover, whether a waiting period applies, or how much of the annual maximum is left, because those answers come from the verification your desk runs, and she says the desk will confirm it.

How does she book a new patient differently from a recall?

A recall goes on the hygiene column in a standard slot with the patient’s hygienist when that column is open. A new patient gets the intake script above, the longer new-patient block, and the provider you have marked as accepting new patients. She records when the last cleaning and X-rays were for the dental team to review, and the carrier so the desk can check benefit limits before the visit.

Can she handle a post-extraction call at night?

Yes. She captures the procedure date, the caller’s description, and a callback number, then follows your treating-dentist or on-call contact rules. Your dental team gives the clinical next steps; Penny does not diagnose, recommend home treatment, or decide that symptoms can wait. Emergency warning signs take the immediate-help route.

What does she do about a toothache during the lunch hour?

She records the tooth or side, timing, and symptoms your dentist-approved intake asks for. An urgent visit is offered only if your rules permit it and a suitable slot is available; otherwise the call follows your dentist-contact route. Any emergency warning sign interrupts booking. The desk receives the caller’s words with the outcome.

AI receptionist for dental offices

Book cleanings without phone tag: your 24/7 dental answering service.

A parent calls at lunch to book two cleanings on the same afternoon. Penny checks your hygiene calendar, collects the patient details your desk needs, and confirms the openings. New-patient exams, reschedules, and questions for the dentist each follow the rules you set.

A fact about the setup

A parent asks for two cleanings after school. Penny checks the hygiene calendar and offers openings on the same afternoon.

Try Penny free

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Or call her from your phone: (630) 297-4128

The demo line

The shared phone demo is ready for a test call

The live demo uses Summit Heating, a fictional HVAC business. Listen to her intake here; test your own trade’s rules in your Penny account. The industry transcripts are scripted examples.

(630) 297-4128

In your configured practice account, ask for cleanings for two children on the same afternoon and see which openings she offers.
Ask whether the practice accepts your dental plan and hear what stays with the desk to verify.
Move a cleaning and listen for the patient check and updated confirmation.
Describe a dental injury and hear how the call follows your dentist-contact rules.

With your desk

The desk handles the patient in the chair while Penny covers the phone

Your desk handles

Check-in, insurance verification, and the copay conversation at the counter. Penny never takes a payment, a card number, or a balance.
Treatment-plan presentations and the financing questions that follow them, with the chart open.
Clinical questions from patients of record, and anything that needs the practice management system in front of the person answering.
Lab cases, referrals to the endodontist or the oral surgeon, and the calls back to those offices.
The morning review of Penny’s overnight summaries, with the messages sorted into the desk queue.

Penny handles

Every call during the lunch hour, and every call that rings while the desk is checking a patient in.
New-patient calls: the intake questions in your order, the carrier name, and an exam in the provider and visit block you approve.
Recall and hygiene reschedules, with the freed slot back on the calendar during the same call.
Evening and weekend appointment calls, plus messages and transfer attempts to the dentist under your contact rules.
Lost-crown, broken-filling, and toothache calls, booked into the doctor’s column with the tooth and the symptoms noted.
Spanish-speaking families, in Spanish, with a call summary sent to the desk.

Your desk keeps the calls that need someone who knows the account. Penny keeps the ones that ring while that person is busy.

Example calls

The next step for a cleaning is different from a call for the dentist

Everyday call
A parent wants two children’s cleanings on the same afternoon.
The caller hears
I can check the hygiene calendar for both children. Have they been seen here before?
Penny does
Completes your patient check, finds suitable recall openings, and records the two patients separately.
Everyday call
A new patient asks whether the practice accepts their dental plan.
The caller hears
I can read the carrier list the office provided and take your plan name for the desk to verify. Would you like a new-patient exam?
Penny does
Records the carrier and offers the approved new-patient visit block; your desk confirms eligibility and benefits.
Everyday call
An existing patient needs to move a cleaning.
The caller hears
After the patient check, I can look for another time with your hygienist. Which days work for you?
Penny does
Moves the verified appointment within your cancellation rules and sends the updated confirmation.
Emergency
A parent reports that a permanent tooth was knocked out.
The caller hears
A knocked-out permanent tooth needs a dentist immediately. I’m contacting the dentist on call now.
Penny does
Follows your immediate dentist-contact and fallback rules with the caller’s details. Medical emergency warning signs use the emergency-services route first.

Illustrative calls. Your intake questions, booking permissions, and contact rules decide the next step. Read the emergency rules.

Intake

A new-patient visit arrives with the details your desk checks

Your practice sets the questions for new-patient, recall, and symptom calls. These examples show what Penny records before offering the hygiene or doctor visit you permit. Pain and injury calls follow your safety screen first, and a reported emergency interrupts ordinary intake.

1
She asks: Have you been seen here before, or would this be a first visit?
Why she asksA patient of record books with their own hygienist or dentist when that column has a slot. A new patient goes to the provider you have marked as accepting them, in the longer new-patient block.
2
She asks: May I have the patient’s full name and date of birth?
Why she asksTwo identifiers before anything is booked, the same standard your desk holds. For a parent calling about a child, the patient is the child. The date of birth labels the appointment and is the first field the redaction switch strips from the email summary.
3
She asks: What is the best number to reach you, and may we text a confirmation there?
Why she asksRequired before she books. An appointment without a callback number is a no-show the desk cannot chase, so she keeps asking until she has one or the caller asks for a callback instead.
4
She asks: In a sentence, what would you like to be seen for?
Why she asksThe reason goes on the appointment in the caller’s words. A cleaning goes to the hygiene column, a toothache to the doctor’s column, and an injury to your dentist-contact rules. She does not say what the problem is.
5
She asks: Which tooth, or which side, and how long has it been bothering you?
Why she asksA lost crown, a cracked molar, and a three-day ache take different amounts of chair time. The tooth and the duration let the desk hold the right length of slot and let the dentist walk in knowing what to look at.
6
She asks: Do you have dental insurance, and which carrier?
Why she asksThe carrier name goes on the appointment so the desk can verify eligibility, frequency limits, and the remaining annual maximum before the visit. She takes the carrier only; the member ID and the card are handled at check-in.
7
She asks: When was your last cleaning, and when were your last X-rays taken?
Why she asksGives the clinical team the history to review and the desk a starting point for checking benefit limits. Penny records the dates; the dental team decides which care or images are needed.
8
She asks: Is anyone having trouble breathing or swallowing, or was there a blow to the head or the jaw?
Why she asksThis question applies to pain or injury calls under your approved protocol. A reported warning sign interrupts booking and follows your emergency-contact instructions.

The script is yours. Add a question and she asks it on the next call.

A call, written out

Two after-school cleanings booked during the lunch hour

A lunch-hour call from a parent arranging two after-school recall visits, with each patient and the carrier recorded for the desk.

pennyassistant.com/calls

Inbound call · Quillmont Dental Group

Answered by Penny · transcript

Penny
Quillmont Dental Group, this is Penny. How can I help?
Marisol (caller)
I’d like to book cleanings for my two children. Could they come on the same afternoon after school?
Penny
I can check that. Have they both been seen at Quillmont before?
Marisol (caller)
Yes, Tobias and Elena Quintanilla.
Penny
Thank you. May I have your name, their dates of birth, and the best callback number?
Marisol (caller)
I’m their mother, Marisol. Tobias is May 8, 2015, and Elena is August 12, 2017. This cell number is best.
Penny
I’ll look for recall openings on the hygiene calendar. Do the children usually see a particular hygienist?
A fact from the knowledge pack, used on the call.
Marisol (caller)
They both see Erin. We still have Delta Dental.
Penny
I’ll note Delta Dental for the desk to verify. Erin has Thursday at 3:30 and 4:10 for their recall visits. Would those work?
Marisol (caller)
Yes, Tobias at 3:30 and Elena at 4:10, please.
Penny
Both are booked with Erin on Thursday: Tobias at 3:30 and Elena at 4:10. Your confirmation will show each child’s visit, and the desk has the carrier name for its benefit check.

In the log

Caller

Marisol Quintanilla · parent · callback confirmed

Patients

Tobias and Elena · dates of birth collected

Coverage

Delta Dental · desk to verify benefits

Appointments

Thursday · 3:30 PM and 4:10 PM · Erin · recall visits

Written to your calendar

Every line she said is in your log with the fields she captured beside it.

Before her first call

A recall uses the hygiene calendar and the patient’s usual provider

From the dental knowledge pack

Hygiene columns and doctor columns, block scheduling, and the practice’s own lengths and provider rules for new-patient exams and recalls.
Prophy, periodontal maintenance, bitewings, and full-mouth series as desk vocabulary; the clinical team decides care and the desk verifies benefit limits.
PPO in-network and out-of-network, annual maximums, waiting periods, missing-tooth clauses, and predeterminations, recognized and routed to the desk, never decided on the phone.
Delta Dental, MetLife, Cigna, Aetna, Guardian, and state Medicaid plans, so the carrier lands on the appointment the way the desk writes it.
The procedures callers ask for by name: crowns, root canals, extractions, implants, clear aligners, whitening, dentures, sealants, and fluoride for children.
Post-extraction calls: the procedure date and reported bleeding, swelling, or worsening pain, passed to the treating or on-call dentist without labeling the cause.
Referral patterns to the endodontist, the oral surgeon, the periodontist, and the orthodontist, and what those offices need from the desk.
Avulsion and other dental injuries: record whether the caller believes the tooth is permanent or primary, then follow the practice’s immediate dentist-contact route.
Emergency warning descriptions, including trouble breathing, serious head or jaw injury, and uncontrolled bleeding, routed under the practice’s approved emergency script.

Penny, on a call

I’ll look for recall openings on the hygiene calendar. Do the children usually see a particular hygienist?

The topics in the list are why she can say this.

What is kept

Stored patient fields versus dropped ones, plus the plan that carries the BAA

Stored

The intake fields you defined: patient name, date of birth, callback number, provider, the reason for the visit in the caller’s words, the tooth or side, and the insurance carrier
The transcript and the recording, kept for the retention period you set and deleted after it, with the PHI-minimized transcript mode on the Business plan
The booking on the provider’s calendar, the message for the desk, and the email summary the office reads in the morning

Not stored

Payment details. Penny never takes a copay, a balance, a financing application, or a card number over the phone.
A member ID or a social security number. She takes the carrier name only; if a caller reads out a number, she asks them to bring the card to check-in instead.
Anything from the chart. She does not open the practice management system, does not read a treatment plan or an X-ray finding to anyone, and labels the booking with a name and a date of birth and nothing more.
Clinical advice. She never says whether a tooth needs a root canal, a filling, or an extraction, and never names a medication or a dose.

On the Business plan the redaction switch strips the date of birth and the reason for the visit from email summaries; both stay in the dashboard for the desk. A BAA is available on request on the same plan. In all-party consent states the recording notice sits in the greeting. The list of what she never says is yours to extend from the dashboard.

You set what she keeps and what she leaves out of the record.

On your website

The next new-patient inquiry can start after the practice closes

quillmontdentalgroup.com

Quillmont Dental Group

Services
Hours
About
Contact

Penny

Chat with Quillmont Dental Group

Visitor

do you take delta dental and do you see kids? my daughter is 4 and has never been to a dentist

What Penny does

Answers from your insurance page which plans you are in-network with, confirms from your services page that you see children and from what age, asks the child’s name and whether anything hurts right now, and books the first visit in the new-patient block on the hygiene column with the carrier noted. She does not say what the plan will cover.

Write a message

The chat follows the same rules as the phone line, so a visitor gets the answer a caller would.

Where it lands

The practice calendar holds the exam and the connected CRM holds the intake

Google Calendar
Outlook
HubSpot
Zapier

Connect Zapier or signed webhooks to send the captured details to the tools your office uses.

Questions

Answers to your front desk’s booking questions

Send setup or plan questions to support@pennyassistant.com.

Google Calendar or Outlook, if your hygiene and doctor columns live there or sync from your practice management system, and HubSpot for the new-patient leads the desk follows up on. Penny writes the appointment with the patient’s name, the reason in the caller’s words, the tooth or side, and the carrier during the call. Zapier and signed webhooks carry the same fields into whatever else the office runs on, and a text confirmation to the patient sits on Pro.

Penny starts at $29 a month on Starter with annual billing, with Pro at $99 adding the on-call schedule, text confirmations, and missed-call text-back, and Business at $249 adding the compliance mode: PHI-minimized transcripts, redaction, retention controls, and a BAA on request. Paid plans include monthly minutes; usage above the allowance is billed at the plan’s per-minute rate. The answering service cost guide compares plans, included minutes, and usage charges.

Only what you have set. If you give her a published exam fee or a new-patient special, she states it and adds that the dentist gives a treatment plan with fees after the exam. If you have not, she says fees come from the treatment plan and books the exam. She never quotes a crown, a root canal, an implant, or what a plan will pay toward any of them, and she can mention that financing is available if you want her to.

She takes the minimum the desk needs: name, date of birth, callback number, the reason in the caller’s words, the tooth or side, and the carrier. She takes no member ID, no social security number, and no payment details, and she does not open the chart. On the Business plan the transcript runs in PHI-minimized mode, the redaction switch strips the date of birth and the reason from email summaries, retention is yours to set, and a BAA is available on request. The recording notice sits in the greeting where your state requires it.

She follows your dentist-approved contact rules. Dental injuries and post-treatment concerns reach the treating or on-call dentist, with the callback details and your fallback if no one answers. A medical emergency gets the emergency-services direction, including 911 when appropriate, before scheduling. Penny does not diagnose or suggest home treatment. The dedicated Emergency Rules page explains how these instructions work.

Other lines of work

Explore the different intake requirements at other professional offices

Insurance

A question she asks

Penny asks what the caller wants to insure and when the policy renews, then offers an appointment with the producer who handles that line.

Legal

From a call

Asked “do I have a case?”, Penny sends that question to the attorney and takes the names and dates needed to arrange a consult.

Medical

A fact about the setup

A patient books a follow-up with their usual provider and leaves a separate refill request with the pharmacy named.

Penny bills a monthly price with minutes included, then the published per-minute rate. The answering service cost guide sets it beside per-minute human services, and the plans are on the pricing page.

Give Penny a call before you forward yours.

Try the HVAC demo, then set up Penny for your business. Your account includes 14 days of Pro; Free keeps your website chat after the trial.

Try Penny free Call Penny: (630) 297-4128

14 days of Pro included. No credit card.