Open Dental stays your practice management system and your schedule. This is a booking page for patients. It checks your schedule in real time through Open Dental's API and writes new appointments back the same way. There is no second calendar to keep in sync, nothing to migrate, and you don't have to turn off eServices.
We issue an API key and you paste it into Open Dental under Setup > Advanced Setup > API. Calls go through the eConnector already running on your server, the same way other Open Dental API clients connect. Nothing is installed on your workstations, and there is no database login, VPN or port forwarding. Your server needs to stay on, because times are read from Open Dental and each booking is checked live before it is written.
The page offers times inside the provider hours and appointment types you configured in our dashboard. Times already booked in Open Dental for that provider are left out, and so are times when every chair is taken. Broken, Unscheduled List and Planned appointments don't block a time, because they don't hold a chair. If Open Dental can't be read at that moment, the page shows no times rather than guessing. On Open Dental, online booking currently works only through the new-patient flow, so turn on new-patient online booking in our scheduling settings. A patient who picks 'Existing Patient' gets an error and has to go back and choose 'New Patient'. Because it is the new-patient flow, cleaning and other hygiene appointment types are not offered online for Open Dental offices yet. Returning patients can book exams and other non-hygiene visits. Before creating a chart, we search Open Dental by name and date of birth, then by name alone, then by phone, then by email. A new patient record is created only if nothing matches. A match on name alone, phone alone or email alone can attach the booking to an existing chart even when the date of birth or the name is different (for example, a parent and child with the same name, or family members who share a phone), so check the chart on every online booking.
Right before saving, we read that day from Open Dental again. If the provider's time has been taken, or every chair is full, the patient is asked to choose another time and nothing is written. Otherwise we pick the chair: the operatories that provider uses most come first, then the rest of your office's chairs, and we take the first one that is free for the whole visit. If Open Dental can't be reached for that check, the booking is refused and the patient is asked to try again or call the office. If the time is free, the patient sees a confirmation once the live check finishes, and the chart and appointment are written to Open Dental shortly after, with the date, time and provider they picked. The appointment is as long as the appointment type, using a doctor-time and assistant-time pattern shaped like your own appointments. If that write fails, we retry it automatically and the booking is flagged for your team.
The chair is the first free one by your provider's usual order, not a per-type rule, so it may not be the chair your scheduler would have picked. Online bookings currently carry an '[AI PHONE BOOKING]' note in Open Dental, the same label as phone bookings. Check the chart match on each one, and move the appointment in Open Dental if it needs a different chair. Online booking for Open Dental is newer than our other Open Dental features, so check the first week of bookings closely.
Setup takes a few minutes and involves no migration. You enable the API in Open Dental, paste in the key we issue, and confirm the eConnector is running. Then, in our dashboard, set each provider's bookable hours and the appointment types patients can choose, with the length of each. Turn on new-patient online booking; without it, Open Dental patients can't complete a booking. We copy your time pattern and each provider's usual chairs from your existing appointments. Then put the booking link on your website, in your Google profile, or in your texts and emails. Before going live, book a few test appointments and check where they land in the Appointments module.
Web Sched is Open Dental's own online booking, part of eServices. It is configured inside Open Dental, and as Open Dental's manual describes, you define Web Sched appointment types with their own length and time pattern, and link them to the operatories and provider schedules they can book into. That gives it precise control over which chair each type of booking can use, and that is a real strength. Our online booking uses provider hours and appointment types with lengths you set in our dashboard, hides times already booked in Open Dental, checks Open Dental live before each booking, and writes new appointments back in the first free chair by that provider's usual order. It doesn't limit an appointment type to certain operatories. If your schedule depends on tying each type to specific chairs, Web Sched may fit better for those. Ours is useful when you want booking to sit alongside the rest of what we run on Open Dental, such as intake forms, reminders and the AI receptionist.
It writes directly, with no request inbox in between. The patient sees a confirmation once the live check finishes, and the chart and appointment are written to Open Dental shortly after. If that write fails, we retry it automatically and the booking is flagged for your team. Online booking for Open Dental is newer than our other Open Dental features, so check the first week of bookings in the Appointments module.
Three ways. Times already booked in Open Dental for that provider are not offered, and neither are times when every chair is full. Right before saving, we read Open Dental live again, including anything Web Sched or your front desk just booked, and refuse the time if the provider or every chair is taken. And the booking only goes into a chair that is free for the whole visit. If Open Dental can't be reached, no times are shown and no booking is saved, so a patient is asked to try again or call rather than being booked blind.
As long as the appointment type the patient picked, using the lengths you set in our dashboard. We shape the doctor-time and assistant-time pattern like your own appointments, so the booking blocks the provider the way your hand-booked visits do. Check that each appointment type's length matches how long you actually book it.
The first operatory that is free for the whole visit. We try the chairs that provider is most often booked in first (as the provider or as the hygienist), then the rest of your office's chairs, then any chair on that day's schedule. If every chair is taken, the time isn't offered. This follows your provider's usual chairs, not a per-type rule, so check where online bookings land in your first week.
Yes. On Open Dental, online booking currently works only through the new-patient flow, so turn on new-patient online booking in our scheduling settings. A patient who picks 'Existing Patient' gets an error and has to go back and choose 'New Patient'. Because it is the new-patient flow, cleaning and other hygiene appointment types are not offered online for Open Dental offices yet. Before creating a chart, we look for an existing one by name and date of birth, then by name alone, phone and email, and only create a new patient record if nothing matches. A single phone or email match can attach the booking to that chart even if the name is different, so check the chart on new online bookings. We don't record the online booking page as its own referral source in Open Dental yet, and a new chart created from an online booking may show 'AI Voice Receptionist' as its referral source. Correct it in Open Dental if you track referral sources.
Yes, if they've added our digital appointment pass to their phone's wallet. The pass has a manage link where they can cancel or move the visit. The reminder text and email don't carry that link; a patient who replies R to the reminder text is asked to call the office. A cancellation from the manage link sets the appointment to Broken in Open Dental with a note giving the reason, and your office gets an email. That note replaces any existing appointment note. Your team can also reschedule from the dashboard, and the AI receptionist can on the phone. On Open Dental a reschedule books the new time and then breaks the original appointment.
No. Our time list and our live check before saving both read what Web Sched and your front desk have already booked in Open Dental. If you run both, decide which booking link goes where, so patients aren't sent to two different pages.
No. It works through Open Dental's API and the eConnector already on your server. You enable the API and add the key we issue. You can turn that key off inside Open Dental whenever you like, and then we lose access.
If you run Open Dental and want patients to book online, this offers times inside the provider hours you set, leaves out times already booked in Open Dental, checks Open Dental live before every booking, and writes the booking in at the appointment type's length in a free chair. Be clear about the trade-offs. Returning patients go through the new-patient flow with chart matching, cleanings can't be booked online yet, and the chair follows your provider's usual order rather than per-type rules the way Web Sched does. Check the first week of bookings closely.
Open Dental is a trademark of Open Dental Software, Inc. Intake.Dental is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Open Dental Software, Inc.
Patients pick from the hours and appointment types you set up for each provider in our dashboard. Times already booked in Open Dental are not offered. Before a booking is saved, we check Open Dental live for that provider and time, and find a free chair. If both are clear, it goes in as a new appointment in your Appointments module, at the length of the appointment type the patient picked, in the first free operatory, starting with the chairs that provider uses most. Before you compare it with Web Sched, know one limit: on Open Dental, online booking runs through the new-patient flow for now, so cleanings can't be booked online yet.
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