In a world where 79% of people prefer to book healthcare appointments online, finding the best online dental scheduling software for your dental office is critical. The right choice will increase the return on your advertising spend and make it easy to keep existing patients loyal to your practice.
Most scheduling software today integrates directly with your practice management system, helping save valuable time during the booking process for your overworked front desk and scheduling team. Dental appointment scheduling software is essential for running an efficient dental practice and staying competitive in today’s market.
If you’re looking to install a scheduling solution or to change your existing solution, you’re in the right place. Let’s cut through the noise together as we highlight the best scheduling solutions for dentists in 2024.
Why Do You Need Dental Scheduling Software?
We already mentioned that nearly 8 in 10 patients prefer to book online appointments. If you don’t offer an easy way for them to book, change, or cancel appointments online, they may find it inconvenient to do business with you.
As of 2022, there were 159,741 general dentists licensed to do business in the USA — that’s over 3,000 dentists per state, on average. Patients have choices, and they’re not so sophisticated when it comes to understanding the quality of dental care. So they’re more likely to decide what fits most easily into their busy life — like painless appointment booking.
Beyond helping you stay competitive, scheduling software can help your dental practice grow in many ways. Let’s take a look.
Benefits Of Scheduling Software For Dental Practices
- Dental appointment software gives patients 24/7 access to schedule appointments, eliminating the need for manual booking methods that tie up your front desk team.
- Digitizing the entire booking process improves efficiency in scheduling patient appointments and handling calendars at your front desk, reducing errors and increasing productivity.
- Some platforms streamline patient intake, allowing patients to provide insurance information and other documentation before their scheduled appointments.
- Real-time scheduling software integrations help you identify and fill empty appointments to maximize your revenue.
- Most online scheduling software lets patients change or cancel their appointments, which helps you reduce no-shows that cost you time and money.
- Automated appointment reminders provided by many online booking software solutions decrease missed appointments, reduce no-shows, and optimize your valuable time.
- Patients love it! And happy patients mean loyal patients and increased patient referrals.
Key Features Of Dental Scheduling Software
What features should you look for in a dental appointment scheduling solution? Every software will have its own bells and whistles, but any dental booking software should have a few core features. Let’s take a look at them:
- Online appointment scheduling lets new patients and recurring patients see, schedule, change, or cancel their appointments in just a few clicks.
- Real-time syncing with your practice management software ensures you always know what your schedule looks like and when you have holes to fill, and your systems appropriately connect appointments to patient records to avoid duplications and inaccuracies.
- Automated appointment reminders, including email reminders, SMS reminders, and phone calls remind patients of upcoming dental appointments.
- HIPAA compliance makes sure patient data is encrypted, detailed audit logs are kept, and you adhere to all privacy and security standards for protecting patient information.
Best Dental Scheduling Software Options In 2024
A quick Google search will give you a dozen or more dental appointment scheduling software options. It can be overwhelming sorting through all the features and essential details to choose the best one to help grow your practice.
So, we’ve made it easy for you by picking our top 4 performers for 2024. Each option has a user review score of 4.5 or higher on a reputable review site and all of the critical features we mentioned above. So you know that other dentists love them, and any of these could be an excellent choice for you.
RevenueWell
RevenueWell is a comprehensive suite of dental marketing tools designed to help dental practices attract, retain, and manage patients more effectively. It offers automated appointment reminders, two-way texting, online booking, and marketing campaigns tailored to the dental industry. The platform also provides tools for managing online reviews and optimizing your online presence.
The Good:
RevenueWell offers easy online scheduling functionality as part of its Marketing Platform product. Their online booking calendars are easy to use and help you fill your schedule to maximize your office’s resources. It has out-of-the-box integrations with most major practice management software and can handle schedules for multiple locations.
The Bad:
Once again, the complexity and cost could be a turnoff for some smaller practices. However, they claim that the average practice using their platform boosts their annual revenue by $73,000, so it may be worth the investment.
User Reviews:
Users often praise RevenueWell for its impact on growing revenue, noting improvements in patient retention and satisfaction due to more effective communication and marketing strategies.
Our Conclusion:
RevenueWell stands out as a strong solution for dental practices looking to attract more patients and save time on manual scheduling. It does a lot more, too, like automatic notifications and follow-ups, that can help make your practice run more smoothly.
Denticon
Denticon by Planet DDS is a comprehensive cloud-based dental practice management software that can be adapted to the operational needs of both small and large dental practices. The software counts among its features online appointment booking, patient communication tools, centralized patient data management, and multi-location support. Because it’s a cloud-based solution, it’s accessible from anywhere and doesn’t require any extensive on-site hardware.
The Good:
One of Denticon’s significant strengths is its scalability. You can stick with the same software as you grow from a solo practitioner to a multi-location dental group. It also integrates seamlessly with most major practice management systems to streamline workflows and reduce
The Bad:
Because Denticon is a practice management software, it’s not a standalone option for scheduling. You’d need to move your practice management to their platform. That said, it’s a powerful and popular tool but could present short-term challenges for practices transitioning from more traditional systems.
User Reviews:
Users have expressed high satisfaction with Denticon, rating it 4.6 out of 5 stars on GetApp. They rave about its user-friendly interface, robust reporting capabilities, and the efficiency improvements it brings to practice management.
Our Conclusion:
Despite its learning curve, the consensus among users is that the advantages of adopting Denticon outweigh any initial challenges. It’s one of the most popular solutions on the market for a reason.
DemandHub
DemandHub is a powerful tool dental practices can use to manage online scheduling, boost patient satisfaction, and improve their online reputation. Unlike the others on this list, DemandHub is not a dental or healthcare-specific software. Instead, it’s a business growth software that serves various industries. However, it does integrate with several major practice management systems, including Abeldent, Tracker, and Dentrix, to facilitate online appointment booking and simplify patient records management.
The Good:
DemandHub’s biggest strength is how easily it integrates and automates patient communication. It enables online appointment booking, automates reminders for upcoming appointments, and helps you collect patient feedback. One of its main selling points is its focus on helping you build your online reputation with 5-star reviews.
The Bad:
As with some others, DemandHub’s platform’s extensive features might require a learning curve for staff unfamiliar with digital practice management solutions. Additionally, its focus on integration could be less suited for practices with very specific or uncommon management systems.
User Reviews:
Users appreciate DemandHub’s ability to streamline appointment management and patient communication, rating it 4.8 stars on G2. They also note that it’s helped them reduce patient acquisition costs by attracting new patients for free with excellent online reviews.
Our Conclusion:
DemandHub offers a comprehensive solution for dental practices looking to boost operational efficiency and patient engagement. If you’re particularly concerned about your online reputation, this may be your best choice. But check to be sure it integrates with your practice management software before making any decisions.
NexHealth
NexHealth is a comprehensive patient experience and management platform designed to digitize the patient journey for dental practices. It simplifies appointment booking, offers real-time communication between patients and providers, and syncs data instantly with a long list of practice management systems and EHRs. They stress enhancing patient engagement through digital convenience.
The Good:
NexHealth’s #1 strength is its robust integration capabilities, which enable a seamless information transition to streamline practice operations. Its robust appointment scheduling software lets you embed calendars into emails and adjust appointment times online. They even offer a unique “Waitlist” function that automatically notifies patients when an appointment opens up!
The Bad:
Like most of the best options, the platform can be complex to navigate initially. But onboarding and training resources. Also, the pricing is gated behind a consultation, but some users say the cost may be too much for smaller practices weighing the benefits against their budget.
User Reviews:
Users say they appreciate NexHealth’s automation of patient engagement and its positive impact on reducing no-shows and filling last-minute openings. The platform’s user-friendly interface and reliable customer support also stand out in online reviews.
Our Conclusion:
NexHealth is an excellent solution for practices aiming to modernize their patient interaction and streamline operational workflows. While there may be a learning curve and cost considerations, the platform’s comprehensive features and benefits make it a valuable investment for any practice that’s serious about growth.
Other Online Dental Scheduling Software
For our main recommendations, we’ve focused on options that meet our core criteria — schedule online, real-time integration with your PMS, appointment time reminders, and HIPAA compliance.
However, all of these options tend to be (with a partial exception of DemandHub) more comprehensive platforms for dental marketing and patient experience. While this is great, some dentists might be looking for a simple solution to integrate into their website so that patients can book appointments online.
In that case, there are a few good options out there, including FlexBooker and Booksteam, for simple, straightforward, and quick-to-get-started booking solutions. However, we’ll note again that a dentistry-focused, fully integrated solution is a better option for 95% of practices.
Which Dental Appointment Scheduling Software Is Right For You?
Hopefully, you now see that allowing patients to book appointments online is no longer a luxury. Today’s best dental scheduling software options help dentists keep patients informed while eliminating human error. It’s a vital tool in any dental office’s growth toolbox.
We believe it’s hard to go wrong with any of our 4 recommendations, but only you can decide which best meets your needs. So schedule some demo appointments, survey your network, and find the perfect software for your office!
