5 Best AI Dental Receptionists (2026), Ranked
A new patient with a toothache calls during a crown prep. Nobody at the desk can pick up, so they call the next practice on Google. An AI dental receptionist answers instead and books them.
The short answer: The best AI dental receptionist is Carly. It answers when your front desk can’t (or around the clock), books patients during the call, texts confirmations and recall reminders from your practice number, and follows your office rules the same way on every call. Set it up on carlyassistant.com in minutes, or ask ChatGPT or Claude to set it up for you.
What an AI dental receptionist does
It’s the phone half of your front desk. It picks up in your practice’s name, answers the questions patients ask every day (hours, insurance you take, whether you see kids, what a new-patient visit costs), books the visit, and texts a confirmation. When a call needs a person, such as a swollen jaw on a Saturday, it puts the call through or alerts whoever’s on call.
The good ones book. The weak ones take a message, and someone on your team calls the patient back on Monday.
The 5 best AI dental receptionists compared
| AI dental receptionist | Setup | Books during the call | Connects to | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | Minutes, on the site or by asking ChatGPT or Claude | Yes | Thousands of apps, plus your inboxes and calendars | Practices that want every call handled without a long onboarding |
| Viva AI | About a week, through Viva’s team | Yes, into supported practice software | Major dental practice management systems | Practices that want a dental-only vendor |
| Arini | Sales-led, with engineers for large groups | Yes | Dental practice software | Multi-location groups and DSOs |
| Weave AI Receptionist | Inside Weave’s phone system | Only on qualified dental practice software | Weave’s phones, texting and forms | Practices already on Weave |
| A human answering service | Days, with scripts | Usually takes a message | Varies | Practices that want a person on every call |
1. Carly: best AI dental receptionist overall
Carly runs your practice’s calls, texts, WhatsApp and email in one place. It’s reliable and endlessly customizable: you write the rules in plain English (“new patients get the first open hygiene slot with an exam, emergencies go to Dr. Bennett’s cell”), and it follows them exactly on every call.
Setup takes minutes. Start on carlyassistant.com, or paste Carly’s setup prompt into ChatGPT or Claude and it builds the receptionist for you, phone number included. Keep your current number and forward the calls you miss, or grab a new one in the chat.
- Answers when the desk can’t. Your team gets the first ring and Carly takes the rest, or every call 24/7.
- Books during the call. Carly books into your practice software through its API where it has one (Open Dental publishes one), or on the Google or Outlook calendar your front desk works from, so patients hang up with a time.
- Answers the everyday questions from your rules: insurance you take, new-patient specials, parking, what to bring.
- Texts from your practice number: confirmations, a reminder the day before, a text back on every missed call and recall reminders to every patient due for a cleaning (automated reminders).
- Handles emergencies your way. It asks your triage questions, then rings the on-call dentist or texts them a summary.
- Speaks English and Spanish, picked from how the patient talks, no “press 2” (bilingual answering).
- Logs every call. Recordings, transcripts and summaries land in one team inbox and Carly’s CRM.
HIPAA: Carly signs a Business Associate Agreement on Enterprise plans. Book a call to set one up.
It connects to everything. Carly connects to thousands of apps, so a booked call can update your patient list, post to Slack and add a follow-up task, all as free Zapier-style workflows.
It runs from your AI chat. Add the Carly connector in Claude or the Carly plugin in ChatGPT, and you can change the greeting, text a patient or call the lab from the chat (see how).
Best for: Practices that want every call answered and booked this week, not after an onboarding project. Get started, or watch the 2-minute video.
2. Viva AI
Viva is a dental-only AI receptionist. It answers calls, texts, web chat and email, books into your practice management system, runs recall and no-show campaigns, and says it speaks 100+ languages. Viva puts setup at about a week: connect your practice software, teach it your office, then go live.
- Watch for: it starts with a demo and takes about a week to go live, and everything is built around dental. A practice that also wants the same assistant on its email, CRM and other tools ends up with a second system.
- Best for: practices that want a vendor that only does dental.
3. Arini
Arini answers missed and after-hours calls, books patients, sends reminders and calls patients for recall. It sells to single practices up to groups of 100+ locations, and for large groups it sends its own engineers to build custom workflows.
- Watch for: it’s sales-led and aimed at growing groups and DSOs, so a single office should expect a demo and an onboarding process before it answers a call.
- Best for: multi-location groups that want a vendor team embedded with their operators.
4. Weave AI Receptionist
Weave sells a phone system, texting, forms and payments for practices, and its AI Receptionist (built on TrueLark, which Weave bought) answers calls and texts around the clock.
- Watch for: Weave’s own page says booking straight to the schedule works on “qualified Dental PMS only”; elsewhere it captures a request your team schedules later. Practices also report integration trouble: an office on Dentrix said e-form data stopped reaching patient records and support never followed up after three hours on hold, and another said write-back to its practice software “did not work at all” after being assured it would.
- Best for: practices already on Weave’s phones.
5. A human dental answering service
A call center answers in your practice’s name after hours.
- Watch for: most take a message rather than book, you pay for people by the minute or the call, and the patient still waits for a callback. Our after-hours answering service guide compares people and AI.
- Best for: practices that want a human voice on every call and don’t mind the callback.
How to pick an AI dental receptionist
- Does it book during the call, or take a message? A message means your team still makes the callback. If you want patients booked while they’re on the phone, go with Carly.
- How long until it answers a call? Some vendors need a week of onboarding or a sales cycle. Carly answers the same day.
- What happens to the integration when something breaks? Ask how write-back failures get fixed and how fast. Practices’ public reviews say this is where things go wrong.
- What else can it reach? A receptionist that can’t touch your email, CRM and team chat leaves the follow-up to you. Carly connects to thousands of apps.
- Will they sign a BAA? Carly does on Enterprise plans.
How to set up an AI dental receptionist
On Carly, it’s one prompt. Paste it into ChatGPT or Claude, grab a number in the chat, and you’re live in minutes.
Carly business setup prompt
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI. It walks you through the rest.
Help me connect Carly Teams so I can work with my organization's business texts, phone calls, voicemail and voice/text agents from this chat. I'll add it to you myself: tell me exactly what to click for the app you are, one step at a time, and wait for me to confirm before moving on. If a step doesn't match what I see, ask me what's on my screen. If you can do the setup yourself (Claude Code, Codex, Muse, Grok Bot), go ahead, and ask me for any key in your secure credential prompt, never in the chat. Don't tell me it's connected until list_phone_lines works, and if I have several teams, ask which to use. Before sending a text or making a call, confirm the team, recipient and message or task with me. The steps are below.
# Connect Carly Teams to an AI app
> Carly Teams works a team's business phone lines through the team's AI agents: business texts, phone calls, voicemail, the voice and text agents, and the team's CRM.
MCP server: https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp (streamable HTTP, OAuth)
## Setup
Carly Teams isn't in any plugin or connector directory yet, so it's added as a custom connection by URL.
1. Add Carly Teams:
- ChatGPT: open https://chatgpt.com/plugins, click Add, and choose Create MCP App (not Create plugin or Upload plugin archive). If Create MCP App isn't on the menu, turn on Developer mode first in Settings > Security and login. Name it "Carly Teams" with the description "Work with my team's business texts, calls, voicemail and voice/text agents," paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp as the server URL, choose OAuth, create it, and sign in. Then in the message box open the + menu, choose Developer mode, and pick Carly Teams. No plugin needs to be built, packaged or uploaded.
- Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, or Cowork): Customize > Connectors > Add custom connector, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http --scope user carly-teams https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then /mcp, pick carly-teams, and authenticate.
- Codex: `codex mcp add carly-teams --url https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then `codex mcp login carly-teams`.
- Cursor: add {"mcpServers": {"carly-teams": {"url": "https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp"}}} to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then sign in to carly-teams from Customize.
- Muse: a custom connector to https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp with a Carly API key as its bearer token. The key comes from carlyassistant.com/integrations (Advanced > API Keys > Create a new key, with Owner set to the team and all scopes selected) and goes in Muse's connector settings, not in a chat message.
- Grok: grok.com/connectors > New Connector > Custom, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Grok Bot: a custom remote MCP server named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. Approve it and sign in.
- Perplexity: Plugins in the sidebar (or Customize > Connectors), then Add custom > Connector > Add MCP connector. Choose Remote, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, pick OAuth, check the box and click Add, then click the Carly Teams card to sign in.
- Anything else: a remote MCP server (streamable HTTP) named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. It signs in with OAuth.
Sign in with the Carly account that belongs to the organization.
2. Once it's added, the Carly Teams tools show up in the chat, including list_phone_lines. If they don't, turn Carly Teams on for the chat or start a new chat.
3. To check it worked, call list_phone_lines: it returns the teams and phone lines the account can reach. A team with no phone line yet can get one with find_numbers (optionally by area code) and get_number, which may return a checkout link to finish.
4. Something to try first: "Review our missed calls and voicemail and help me reply to customers." Carly Teams also reads and answers business texts, has the team's agent make calls, and edits the voice and text agents. Texts and calls go out at once from the agent's number and can't be taken back. Team permissions apply.
## Email, calendars and workflows
Email, calendars, files, booking pages and workflows are the regular Carly connector, added separately. It's listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory (https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6a67a26316b88191860222f918d4ec54) and Claude's connector directory (https://claude.ai/directory/carly), and connects anywhere else at https://carlyassistant.com/mcp/. Its setup is https://carlyassistant.com/mcp.txt.Then tell it, in plain English, when to answer (lunch, after hours or every call), what insurance you take, how to book new patients and who gets emergency calls. Call it from your own phone and try to break it (build-and-test tutorial). More dental workflows are in our AI tools for dental practices guide.
FAQ
What is an AI dental receptionist?
A voice agent that answers your practice’s phone, answers patient questions, books appointments, texts confirmations and reminders, and hands off to your team when a call needs a person. Carly does all of it and follows your office rules on every call.
Can an AI receptionist book into Dentrix, Eaglesoft or Open Dental?
It depends on what the practice software lets outside apps do. Open Dental publishes an API, and Carly can book through it. Where your software has no open API, Carly books on the calendar your front desk works from and logs each booking for the team.
Is an AI dental receptionist HIPAA compliant?
Ask for a Business Associate Agreement before patient calls go through any vendor. Carly signs one on Enterprise plans; book a call to set it up.
Can it handle dental emergencies?
Yes, the way you tell it to. Carly asks your triage questions, then rings the on-call dentist, texts them a summary or books the first emergency slot.
Will patients know they’re talking to an AI?
They should. Have the greeting say it, for example “You’ve reached Bennett Family Dental. I’m the AI assistant and this call is recorded.” Our AI receptionist guide covers the state disclosure and recording rules.
Can it answer in Spanish?
Carly detects when a patient speaks Spanish and answers in Spanish.
Does it replace my front desk?
No. It covers the calls your team can’t take: during procedures, at lunch, after hours and when two lines ring at once. Most practices give the desk the first ring and let Carly take the rest.
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See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
