Best Dental Scheduling Software for Booking Patients

Dental scheduling software is used by dental practices to manage appointments and the related customer communication details. Some of the additional functionalities that scheduling softwares offer are automated reminders, surveys, messages, and recalls to automate all time-consuming and repetitive tasks. You can save administrative staff 15 to 30 minutes per patient by automating patient communication, as it eliminates manual tasks. It’s also proven that automated patient reminders reduce no-shows by 22.95%.

Providing clients a hassle-free experience is an essential part of the modern patient experience. If patients can book their visits at their convenience, from their preferred device, it frees up the front office staff’s time to focus on preparing for events and opportunities that can help the practice grow. This also leaves no room for human error, as the system manages appointments, reminders, and feedback seamlessly.

Practices that use scheduling software run more efficiently than the ones that have to spend their time doing repetitive tasks. This frees up your staff’s time, allowing them to work on the patient experience and growing your practice. Let us look at some of the benefits to using a dental appointment software:

• Book appointments after hours: Practices that used NexHealth’s scheduling software reported that almost 73% of their patients booked their appointments after hours. Since your office hours are the same as your patient’s work schedule, booking their next dental appointment at that time may interfere with their work. More importantly, new patients searching for a new dentist won’t have to wait until your office opens to schedule an appointment, allowing you to convert visitors outside of your office hours.
• Ease of booking without any back and forth: Since patients can see their doctor’s availability, they can simply choose the time that works best for them.
• Eliminates the need to call: Most people procrastinate to book their appointments because they have to call the office, stay on hold, or leave a voicemail, making a routine task like booking an appointment arduous. With scheduling software, patients book their appointments at their convenience.‍
• Automated reminders: All dental appointment scheduling softwares come with the ability to send appointment reminders to your patients to reduce no-shows and cancellations.
  

While evaluating the best dental scheduling software for your practice, there are some common features that you can expect to find in all of them. If your practice is looking for specific features, you might be able to find them in more advanced plans.

Below are some of the common features to consider when choosing a dental scheduling software.

• Patient self-scheduling: Patients can book their appointments without the need to call during office hours or having to go back and forth to get an appointment confirmation.
• Appointment reminders: Practices can set up automatic reminders to go out before their patients’ visits to reduce no-shows and cancellations.
• Two-way messaging: Patients can communicate directly with the front office via sms or email messaging in case they have any questions about their appointment or their care.
• Virtual waitlists: Practices can let patients move up their appointments, in case of any cancellation, so that their schedules remain full.
• After-care surveys: Sending customizable feedback forms after appointments can help your practice understand your patients’ satisfaction levels, giving you a chance to review and improve based on their responses.
• Online payments: Instead of having your patients queue up in the office to make their payments, scheduling softwares allows secure online payments that patients can use from the comfort of their home on their own device.
• Recalls: Practices can send targeted and personalized patient recall campaigns to bring back patients to resume their care with you.
  

Schedule more patients - and fill cancellations and no-shows - with NexHealth!

The convenience of letting patients book their appointments is liberating for both your front office and your visitors. Your patients can schedule their visits without facing any judgment or inhibition while your front office staff can work on strategies that can help bring in more patients. Let us look at the best dental appointment softwares that offer this functionality:

1. NexHealth

‍Cost: Contact for quote

Best for: Acquiring new patients, as current users have reported an average of 18 new patients per month

NexHealth is a patient scheduling software that allows your practice to acquire new patients and retain your existing patients by giving them a modern patient digital experience.  NexHealth integrates with your EHR systems with one API, reducing the time to build an integrated product from 18 months to 6 weeks.

Top features:

• Online scheduling and reminders
• Online payments
• Virtual waiting list
• Online forms and surveys
• Email and text marketing
• Patient recalls

2. Denticon

‍Cost: Contact for quote

Best for: Actionable insights and analytics that can help boost practice performance

Delivering a modern clinical experience, Planet DDS’ Denticon practice management solution is a cloud-based dental software for practices of all sizes. Denticon helps reduce your IT costs by replacing costly legacy systems with a predictable monthly subscription rate.

Top features:

• Online appointment scheduling
• Native patient communication
• Centralized patient data
• Multi-location functionalities

3. Maxident

‍Cost: Contact for quote

Best for: Free data conversion

Maxident ‘s practice management software allows dental offices to efficiently manage their practice with all the right dentistry software tools. On purchasing the Maxident software for your practice, you also get the software license for free to run it on as many computers as you like.

Top features:

• Patient recall and appointment system
• Treatment planning
• Insurance approval
• Audit trails

4. Flexbooker

‍Cost: $39 - $79/month

Best for: Try it for free for 14 days

FlexBooker is an online scheduling tool that can allow customers to book their appointment from any device and receive confirmations automatically. By adding a plugin widget to their site, businesses can customize the design and experience that they want their clients to look for.

Top features:

• Online payments
• Daily recap every morning to see all bookings and cancellations
• Automatic reminders
• Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, Outlook, and iCal integration
  

5. Booksteam

‍Cost: $19.95 - $79.95/month

Best for: Offer packages and gift certificates to your clients

Booksteam is an online scheduling software that can be used to gain clients, automate your bookings, and expand your business’ reach by letting your customers book your services through your social handles. Booksteam allows businesses to manage their bookings from anywhere in the world and their intuitive platform allows users to personalize the design and interface of their booking page and manage their client database with ease.

Top features:

• Online booking
• Personalize client notifications
• Customize your booking page based on your brand
• Online payments
• Online video scheduling
  

If you are looking for scheduling software that can help your front office manage patient bookings, then check out the following solutions to help you achieve this for your practice:

1. SimplePractice

‍Cost: $39 - $59/month

Best for: Try for free for 30 days without giving any credit card information

SimplePractice’s HIPAA-compliant practice management software allows practices to go fully virtual and access their data from anywhere. Practices can build their website and integrate it with their EHR system, personalize their design within minutes, and also make their platform mobile-friendly.

Top features:

• Telehealth
• Online booking
• Paperless intakes
• Insurance
  

2. MOGO

‍Cost: $250/month

Best for: Send MOGO your data for a no-obligation data evaluation to receive what data will be converted to the MOGO Cloud

MOGO is a comprehensive cloud-based dental practice management solution that caters to the needs of general dentists as well as specialists. Securing your data against any potential cyber threats, MOGO integrates with Microsoft Azure, making it one of the most powerful and HIPAA-complaint softwares on the market.

Top features:

• Schedule appointments
• 24/7 all-inclusive access to patient records, admin reports from multiple locations
• eReminders

3. Apptoto

‍Cost: $29 - $249/month

Best for: Integrates with your existing systems, if your system is not listed, Apptoto can build an integration for you

Apptoto is an online scheduling software that can be used by any client-facing business that promises to eliminate no-shows and late arrivals. You can send fully customizable and interactive appointment reminders and confirmation requests through text, email, or voice call for your upcoming appointments, that are updated in real-time to your calendar and inbox.

Top features:

• Reminders
• Scheduling
• Online payments
• Two-way messaging

4. Cliniconex

‍Cost: Contact for quote

Best for: Patient engagement

Cliniconex’s patient engagement solution is built to ensure that your clinic’s workflow and processes are never compromised. Their solution for medical clinics includes sending reminders and notifications, conducting surveys, and offering a waiting room concierge for their senior care automatic care reminders.

Top features:

• Appointment reminders
• Booking notifications
• Waitlist management
• Appointment recalls
• Clinic cancellations
• Patient surveys
  

5. PatientPop

‍Cost: Contact for quote

Best for: Get a free assessment of your practice’s online marketing, visibility, and website performance

PatientPop provides your patients access to digital touchpoints at every step of their care. Along with automating your front office to give your patients a modern clinic experience, PatientPop takes care of your online reputation, local listings, and presence on the internet.

Top features:

• Online scheduling
• Two-way text messaging
• Reminders and appointment confirmations
• Patient satisfaction surveys
• Telehealth
  

If you are still on the edge about integrating scheduling software into your practice or if budget is a constraint, then there are a few free tools listed below that can help you get started. All of these tools have a free plan which offers limited functionality, allowing you to upgrade to unlock more features.

1. appointy

‍Cost: Free - $79.99/month

Best for: Get bookings directly from Facebook, Instagram, Google, and your business website

Appointy’s web-based online scheduling tool is designed to eliminate back and forth phone calls and emails, thereby boosting productivity and growing your business. Appointy can be used by professionals, local service providers, and mid to large enterprises across industries to manage their calendars and ensure their schedules are full.

Top features:

• Google bookings
• Online payments
• Automatic reminders
• Live chat and email support

2. SimplyBook.me

‍Cost: Free - $59.99/month

Best for: Book appointments via Facebook, Instagram, Google Maps, client app, Booking.Page, and a widget on your website

SimplyBook.me functions as an online booking system for all service-based businesses with the availability of a customized client and an admin app. SimplyBook.me offers other customization options such as domain name, a drag and drop email editor, themes, translation, and calendar layout.

Top features:

• Online bookings
• Reminders to clients and staff
• Online payments
• Coupons & gift cards

3. mend

Cost: Free - $29/month

Best for: AI-powered no-show and cancellation prediction

Mend is a complete unified front-end telehealth solution that works with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to predict no-shows and cancellations with 90% accuracy. Mend seamlessly integrates with all major EHR and PMS systems and has advanced API coverage if needed.

Top features:

• Telehealth
• Patient scheduling
• Digital forms
• Integration with your existing EHR system

4. 10to8

‍Cost: Free - $40/month

Best for: Connects to 500+ apps

10to8 is a secure and encrypted HIPAA-compliant scheduling software that is built on open-source frameworks empowering you to have additional control over your patient data and how you share it. You will have to sign a Business Associate Agreement or a BAA before storing PHI within 10to8.

Top features:

• Reminders
• Online booking
• Staff coordination
• Calendar sync
  

As a practice, if you want to offer your patients modern treatment methods and be known for keeping yourself up-to-date with the latest in the field, then providing a modern patient experience is an important aspect of it.

Learn how you can revamp your practice with NexHealth’s scheduling system by booking your free demo today.