Tuesday, 12:40 p.m. The front desk switched the phones over at 12:30 and went to the break room. A new patient with a cracked molar calls, hears a greeting recorded three winters ago that still gives the old Friday hours, and hangs up before the beep. By 12:50 that caller has an appointment at the office two exits down.
At lunch, after 5 and on every holiday, the greeting is the only one working your phones. The scripts below cover each of those times. Change the parts in brackets, read each one aloud once, and record them this week.
What a call that goes to voicemail costs
One study of 26 practices logged 4,280 calls. Thirty-eight percent were never answered, and about 30% of all calls arrived after hours. Dental trade press puts the first year of a new patient at around $1,000, and most offices put it at $500 or more.
Run your own numbers. Count the calls that reached voicemail last week, then the messages left. The gap is how many people heard your greeting and tried someone else. If just one of them each week was a new patient, that's about $4,000 a month at the trade-press figure, before the family members who would have followed.
A better greeting won't bring every caller back. It keeps more of them on the line, and it tells the rest exactly where to go.
The five parts of a good greeting
Every script below keeps the same order:
- The practice name, so callers know they dialed the right office.
- Why nobody answered, and when someone will. “We're at lunch until 1:30” beats “we're unable to take your call.”
- The emergency route, said early, for the caller who's in pain.
- A faster path: book online, or reply to the text that's on its way.
- What to leave: who's calling, the best number to reach them, and why they called.
Aim for about 60 words. People speak at roughly 150 words a minute, so 60 words plays in 25 seconds. Past 30 seconds, callers start hanging up before the beep.
Lunch hour voicemail script
“Thanks for calling [Practice name]. Our front desk is out for lunch until 1:30. For a dental emergency, press 1. To book a cleaning or an exam now, visit [website] and tap Book online. Or leave your name, number and what you need, and we'll call you this afternoon. A text from this number is coming too, if that's easier.”
Give the exact time you're back, never “shortly”. Set the phone rules to switch greetings at 12:30 and 1:30, so nobody has to remember. If lunch moves on Fridays, record a Friday version instead of a vague one that fits both.
After-hours voicemail script
“You've reached [Practice name]. We're closed for the day and open again at 7:30 tomorrow morning. If you have swelling, bleeding that won't stop or a knocked-out tooth, press 1 for the dentist on call. If you have trouble breathing or swallowing, hang up and call 911. To book a visit any time, go to [website]. Otherwise leave your name, number and the reason you called, and we'll phone you back first thing.”
For Friday evenings and weekends, change one sentence: “We're closed for the weekend and back Monday at 7:30.” If you open late one evening a week, that evening's hours go in the greeting too.
Holiday voicemail script
“Thanks for calling [Practice name]. We're closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday and Friday, November 26 and 27, and back on Monday, November 30, at 7:30. For a dental emergency, press 1 to reach the dentist on call. You can book a visit at [website] while we're away, or leave a message and we'll return it Monday morning. Happy Thanksgiving from all of us.”
Record each holiday's version a week ahead and set its start and end dates in your phone rules, so it plays only while you're closed. The usual closings for the next twelve months:
| Holiday | Office closed | Greeting starts | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thanksgiving | Nov 26 and 27, 2026 | Nov 25, at closing | Nov 30 |
| Christmas | Dec 24 and 25 | Dec 23, at closing | Dec 28 |
| New Year's Day | Jan 1, 2027 | Dec 31, at closing | Jan 4 |
| Memorial Day | May 31 | May 28, at closing | Jun 1 |
| Independence Day | Jul 5 (observed) | Jul 2, at closing | Jul 6 |
| Labor Day | Sep 6 | Sep 3, at closing | Sep 7 |
Who takes emergency calls after hours
Press 1 only helps if somebody picks up. Settle whose week it is on call, and point the press-1 route at that person's cell. Many offices rotate the owner and the associates; a solo office often rings the owner's cell every night. One owner described that exact setup on a dentists' forum: “Pressing 1 goes to my cell phone.”
List the problems worth a call at night, so a question about a bill waits for morning: swelling, a broken or knocked-out tooth, a lost crown that hurts, bleeding that won't stop. Some offices keep the on-call line for patients of record and give new callers the first opening the next day. If that's your rule, the greeting says so in one sentence.
Should the greeting say you'll text them back?
Yes, if your phones send one. A caller who won't leave a voicemail will often answer a text, and the text gives them something to do while the desk is away. FlossBooked's business phones text each missed caller within the minute, from the same number they dialed. A text-back that works:
“Hi, it's [Practice name]. Sorry we missed you. Reply here with what you need, or book at [link]. We're back at the desk at 1:30.”
Replies show up in the front desk's inbox, next to calls, email and Facebook messages, so the first person back from lunch sees them all.
Who listens to the messages, and when
A message nobody hears until 3 p.m. is barely better than no message. Give each stretch of the day one owner:
- Overnight: the person who opens, before the morning huddle.
- Lunch: whoever is back first, cleared by 1:45.
- Late afternoon: the last one out, before the phones switch at 5.
Call back in this order: emergencies, new patients, cancellations (each one is a slot for your ASAP list), then the rest. Transcripts save the most time here. With voicemail to email, every message arrives as its recording plus a written transcript, so the desk reads ten messages in the time one used to take to play. Plenty of owners already work this way; as one put it, “the transcript comes to my email.”
Recording tips
- Record in a quiet room, not at the counter while the waiting room chats behind you.
- Use the voice patients already hear at checkout.
- Read slower than feels natural, and say a long web address twice.
- Leave out filler lines and any menu longer than three options.
- Put your full weekly hours on the website, not in the greeting.
- Once it's recorded, call your own number from a cell. Check that the greeting plays and that press 1 reaches the dentist on call.
- Listen again twice a year: in January, and the week before Thanksgiving.
Where the AI receptionist fits
A greeting tells callers when you'll be back. Some offices would rather book the caller before then. FlossBooked's AI receptionist takes the calls your desk can't reach: the second line at checkout, the lunch hour, the evening. It tells callers it's an AI assistant, books cleanings and exams through online scheduling, transfers emergencies to whoever is on call and leaves a summary of each call for the desk. During the day, your front desk still answers first, and the scripts above still catch whatever it passes along.
Once the phones are covered, the callbacks start opening slots. Our post on filling the hygiene schedule covers what to do with them. Every plan carries the whole thing, starting at $97 a month. See every plan.
FlossBooked
FlossBooked sets up the phones, the website and the new-patient marketing for US dental practices. These posts come from the questions front desks and office managers bring to our team.
