An agent that answers while your hands are in a patient’s mouth

Three moments when the phone rings into the void

• It is 8:10 a.m., the waiting room is filling up and three people call at once for a cleaning.
• A toothache at 4:50 p.m. on a Friday: the caller wants to know if they can be seen today, not leave a message.
• A patient wants to move an appointment and check whether their hygienist is free next week.

Your trade’s vocabulary

Transcription is tuned for English and Quebec French, and picks up the words your patients actually use on the phone, for example:

• cleaning
• scaling
• filling
• crown
• dental hygienist

Why a dental clinic

• The front desk of a dental clinic does everything at once: the counter, payments, insurance claims, charts — and the phone ringing over all of it.
• Calls come in waves: at opening, over lunch and late in the afternoon, exactly when the team is least free to pick up.
• Someone shopping for a cleaning calls two or three clinics and books with the first one that answers.
• A toothache does not wait for a callback the next day: the caller wants to know right now whether they can be seen.
• Every service has its own duration — cleaning, exam, filling, emergency — and you set it in your calendar. The agent books from what you defined; it invents neither a service nor a duration.
• The six-month cleaning recall is one more call, often made between two appointments. The agent takes it and books the patient without anyone leaving the chair.

The Quebec context

Professional orders and common software

In Quebec, dentists are regulated by the Ordre des dentistes du Québec, whose mission, in its own words, is to « protéger le public en assurant une médecine dentaire de qualité, en favorisant l’accès aux soins buccodentaires et en faisant la promotion de l’importance de la santé buccodentaire pour la santé globale » — protecting the public, access to oral care, and oral health as part of overall health. Dental hygienists are regulated by the Ordre des hygiénistes dentaires du Québec. On the software side, two names come up often in Quebec dental offices: Dentitek, which describes itself as a « logiciel de gestion dentaire complet » (a complete dental management software) and reports « 1 000+ cliniques dentaires », and Progident, which publishes « logiciels ERP de gestion dentaire informatisée » (dental management ERP software). Allô Clinique does not connect to either one. The agent works with Allô Clinique’s built-in calendar: appointments taken by phone are written there, your team sees them in the dashboard, and your practice management software stays exactly as it is. Elsewhere in Canada, the regulator and the common software differ by province — ask us about your province’s requirements.

Sources: Ordre des dentistes du Québec · Ordre des hygiénistes dentaires du Québec · Dentitek · Progident.

What we get asked

“My patients will hang up on a machine.”

Some might. But the real comparison is not machine versus human: it is machine versus voicemail. The patient calling at 7 p.m. about a cracked tooth is choosing between an answering machine and a voice that finds them a slot. The agent speaks Quebec French, switches to English from the first sentence if the caller does, and never pretends to be a person: if asked, it says so plainly.

“We already have online booking.”

Keep it. A good share of patients still prefer to call, especially for an emergency, a first visit or an insurance question. The two channels complement each other: the agent takes the people who phone, your website keeps the people who click.

“Does it work with Dentitek or Progident?”

No, and we will not tell you otherwise: there is no connection between Allô Clinique and those systems. The agent books into Allô Clinique’s built-in calendar; your team sees every appointment and every call in the dashboard, and your practice management software stays in place. There is nothing to change to get started.

“What about my patients’ information?”

The database is in Canada. Calls are not recorded: we keep the written transcript and a summary, not the audio. An automatic purge runs every day, a patient can ask for their information to be erased, and they can opt out of text messages by replying STOP. A data processing agreement is available. In Quebec, that file is about Quebec’s Law 25; elsewhere in Canada, ask us about your province’s requirements. The voice-processing subprocessors are named in our privacy policy.

“My team will see it as a threat.”

In a dental clinic the front desk is the most interrupted position: it handles the counter, payments and insurance claims while the phone rings. The agent takes the first line. What it removes is the interruption, not the job: treatment plans, payment arrangements and unhappy patients stay with your team, with the call context already noted.

Pricing

Two plans, no fixed-term commitment. The amounts below are the ones on the pricing page, in Canadian dollars.

• Solo — CA$299/month, one number, 300 calls and 600 minutes included each month. Beyond that: CA$0.65 per call or CA$0.34 per minute.
• Standard — CA$399/month for each number, 800 calls and 1600 minutes included each month. Beyond that: CA$0.55 per call or CA$0.29 per minute.

A one-time CA$499 setup fee applies when the service goes live. When both overages apply in the same month, we bill the higher of the two, never the sum. Full details are on the pricing page.

Getting set up

1. List your services and the duration of each: cleaning, exam, filling, emergency. This is what the agent reads on every call. An appointment takes at least one hour in the calendar; a longer service takes its full duration.
2. Enter your practitioners — dentists and hygienists —, their languages, and whether they accept new patients.
3. Enter your opening hours and upcoming closures. The agent offers slots inside those hours.
4. Write your emergency rule in your instructions: transfer to a number, or a priority callback. You can change it whenever you want.
5. Test the agent from the dashboard, then turn on call forwarding from your line. You keep your number, and you turn the forwarding off whenever you want.

Frequently asked questions

Does the agent understand Quebec French?

It is tuned for Quebec French first, and it switches to English from the first sentence if the patient speaks English. The best way to judge is to listen: the demo is on the home page.

What does the agent do with a toothache?

It never diagnoses and never gives clinical advice. It follows your rule: transfer the call to the number you set, or take the caller’s details and the problem for a priority callback. If the caller describes a life-threatening emergency, it directs them to 911.

Does it work with my dental practice management software?

The agent does not connect to your software. It books into Allô Clinique’s built-in calendar, and your team sees everything in the dashboard. You keep your current software as it is.

What do I need to prepare?

The list of your services and the duration of each, the names of your dentists and hygienists, your opening hours and the number to transfer emergencies to. Everything is entered from the dashboard, nothing to install, and you can test the agent at any time during setup.

Does the patient get a reminder before their cleaning?

Yes. They receive a confirmation text when the appointment is booked, then a reminder before the date. If they reply STOP, no further texts are sent.

Do I keep my phone number?

Yes. You get a new local Canadian number where available, and you forward your existing line to it. You keep your number, and you turn the forwarding off whenever you want.

Will my patients know they are talking to a machine?

Yes, on purpose. The agent never pretends to be a person: if asked, it says so plainly.