A full AI receptionist that writes to Open Dental and only hands the phone over when it has to.

Forest & Ray is a central London dental practice that fields enquiries across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, the website chat and the main phone line every day of the week. Patients ask about check-ups, hygienist slots, invisalign, implants and emergency appointments, and expect an answer in the same minute.

The whole front desk now runs through one AI receptionist. It qualifies every enquiry, offers slots from the live Open Dental diary, writes the appointment back to Open Dental, emails the patient a Stripe deposit link, and only confirms the appointment once Stripe reports the deposit paid.

The AI stays in the thread for the reminder, reschedule and post-appointment follow-up. When something is outside its remit, it transfers the live call to the human receptionist with the context attached, so nobody repeats themselves.

Enquiry, booking, deposit, confirmation. One thread.

A patient DMs the Instagram account at 9pm asking about a composite bonding consult. The AI replies in seconds with the consult length, the price, the next three slots pulled live from Open Dental, and a short triage question. The patient picks a slot, the AI writes the appointment into Open Dental as pending, and the Stripe deposit link lands on their email within the next message.

Stripe fires back when the deposit is paid. The AI flips the appointment to confirmed in Open Dental and sends the WhatsApp confirmation with the clinic address, the clinician name and the two forms the patient needs to fill before arriving. The human receptionist opens Open Dental in the morning and sees the chair booked and paid, with the whole conversation attached as a note.

When the AI hits something outside the playbook, like a nervous first-time patient asking to speak to someone, it offers a live call. If the patient accepts, the call rings the human receptionist with the chat transcript on-screen, so the handover takes seconds, not minutes.